7 Day old infant killed by dog in Pasco, FL

UPDATE 4/16 - Several updates to this that are mostly random but I think some are important. One of the more recent articles on this spends a lot of time describing the living arrangement that the family and the dogs were living in: a 840 square foot mobile home that was housing 10 people and 3 dogs and a yard full of tires, a treadmill and a couch. For awhile I've been pointing out that poverty is seemingly a common factor in many of these tragic attacks. To clarify, it is not because I don't think poor people should own pets. To the contrary, I think everyone deserves the opportunity to own pets if they can care for them. But poverty, which is usually accompanies by lack of education (which is clearly an issue in this case as the mother was not even old enough to have finished high school) usually leads to a lack of overall knowledge about a lot of topics, including how to care for dogs. We really do need to spend efforts on educating dog owners in low-income areas on managing their dogs.

It is also worth noting that as the mother slept through the attack that happened right next to her, police have run a toxicology test on her.

There have been several reports that authorities are doing a DNA test on the dog to check the dog's breed - -I have no idea why on earth that matters at this point. The dog has been killed, there are no laws specifying specific breeds here, so the breed would have no bearing on further charges so I don' t know what they hope to learn from the test. But most likely the test will show the dog to be a mixed breed dog.  

The dog is now being described as a 45 lbs dog - down from the initial reports of the dog being double that size.  The dog was "vaccinated" by the father with some vaccines he bought at a feed store.  The dog had apparently been involved in a couple of other aggressive incidents in the home with other dogs in the home. The dog was unaltered.

The father has had a couple of run-ins with the law in the past --including an incident in December where he was charged with aggravated battery for punching a roommate during a fight over the cleanliness of the home. He was also arrested in 2007 on charges of  possession of controlled substances and burglary. He could be looking at some other potential charges as the mother was 15 at the time of conception and it is illegal for anyone to have sex with someone under the age of 16 in the state of Florida -- although authorities say they are not looking into that at this time.

While many people in different comments sections have (of course) tried to make this about the dog, it seems pretty evident that there are a lot of factors that led up to this tragedy.

****************

The details on this one are a little sketchy still, so per usual I will continue to update this as more info becomes available.

A 7 day old boy, Thomas Carter, Jr, was killed earlier today by a dog in his home. The boy was sleeping on the bed with his 16 year old mother and was apparently bitten and killed by the family dog.

The mother did not realize the baby had been injured until some neighbors knocked on the door around noon today and woke her up. When she woke up, she realized the baby was bleeding with multiple dog bites.

The dog was a mixed breed pit bull type dog said to weigh 100 lbs.

This is the second newborn to be killed by a family dog this year (two different breeds involved) -- and the second fatal attack in Pasco (specifically in Moon Lake) in the past 6 months (again, involving a different type of dog).  This is a fairly impoverished area.

Last month, I interviewd Jennifer Shyrock of Dogs & Storks on how to introduce newborns into a home with dogs. Newborns are very challenging for even humans to understand, so it is not surprising when dogs do not know what to do with them. Jennifer had tons of great advice, but the last words of our interview hit home very well on this case:

SUPERVISE AT ALL TIMES!  If you are sleeping and the dogs are in your room…have a plan. Tether, crate or gate so that you know for sure you will be the first responder to your baby’s cry.

I'm very saddened by this story. The excitement of a new mom with her newborn child being squelched in such a sudden way is truly tragic. And it was truly preventable.  It is just so important for parents to take necessary precautions with their children and dogs -- especially newborns. The Dogs & Storks website has a ton of great tips and resources.

Fortunately,Jenifer Chatfield, the President of the Pasco Hernando Veterinary Medical Association is doing her part to try to educate people on the real issues here.

"No matter the size or breed of the pet, supervision for children is really a must," Chatfield said. "There's not any hard and fast rule it would be appropriate to give because it changes based on the needs of the child and the pet and what the family can provide."

One practice she discourages is the labeling of certain breeds as violent. She said she has worked on pit bulls and rottweilers that were great pets and has seen much smaller dogs exhibit aggression.

"To discriminate or stereotype based on breed is very antiquated and is not something we have found to be valid in veterinary medicine at all," she said.

My heart goes out to the family in this case and I sincerely hope that people will learn from the incident so that we can prevent others from happening in the future.

The story broke only a few hours ago, and already more than 240 media outlets have picked up on it.

 

Comments

[Aimee]

I am a mother and a dog owner. I am completely mystified as to how a mother could be sleeping on a bed with a baby and not know that a dog was mauling their child right next to them. That seems completely impossible, unless the mother was using drugs or sometime.

I think that there is a LOT more to this story than is being reported.

[EmilyS]

I agree with you Aimee.. there has been more than one incident like this. Remember the one where the pit bull puppy chewed off a baby's testicles while mom "slept"... she actually turned out to be drugged out of her mind

[dan]

According to further stories the neighbor that woke the mom was sleeping in the trailer with her 2 year old son in another room. She heard the child crying about 9:30, but he quit after a couple minutes so she went back to sleep. Knocked on the mother's bedroom door later.

The mom had dropped out of school but was taking classes on line. And it is possible that she was just really tired after 7 days of nonstop care, but...

The dog was intact.

Reaching for more reasons, they are sending the dog's head for testing because "his behavior suggests that he had rabies". (I wonder about this - lots of focus on the dog).

I like the information provided by Dogs & Storks. We have a link to them on our website.
But it is either not reaching those most at risk or not changing their behavior. 2 adults in the trailer and neither thought to put the dog in another room while the mom slept?

And I know that some will disagree that neutering the dog would make it less likely, but the high correlation is there, and bites decrease when males are neutered.

And while it is possible that a whole group or community of humans might change their behavior and suddenly start taking better care of their dogs just because they were neutered, as unlikely as that is, veterinarians I talk to tell me that the simpler and far more likely explanation is the removal of the testosterone. Making this more available, in voluntary and respectful ways, to people disadvantaged by income removes most of the barriers and would make communities safer.

I hope the child, and dog, both of whom were victims here, rest in peace.

[YesBiscuit]

I would think that the most obvious factor in this tragedy is the fact that the Mother of the deceased child is a child herself.

[Chris Shaughness]

As a trainer and behavior specialist, I used to give monthly lectures at Babies R Us to soon-to-be parents. I covered all of the information in your post and gave handouts. Any trainers out there - I encourage you to approach your local baby store and ask if you could do lectures.

[Brent]

Great for you Chris. Thanks for doing that type of work. It isn't difficult to handle dogs with a newborn, but there are just a few little things that newly overwhelmed parents often don't think about. These tragedies are so easily avoided with just a little education. Thanks Chris for your work.

[H Houlahan]

Aside from the extreme youth of the mother -- such that the baby's conception was likely secondary to statutory rape -- the father of this infant has a history of violent crime, with police calls to the residence in the recent past.

These are not people who are managing well before an infant comes into the picture.

[H Houlahan]

Realized that I read about Daddy's criminal history in a different article:

Authorities had been to the home in December when Carter was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery. He and a roommate fought about the cleanliness of the home, a report said. Carter was accused of punching the man so hard that the man had to be flown to Tampa General Hospital for surgery to relieve swelling of his brain. Carter also was arrested in 2007 on charges of possession of controlled substances and burglary, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/pit-bull-mix-blamed-for-death-of-7-day-old-new-port-richey-infant/1087370

[A. friend]

A clear example of a need for educating young inexperienced mothers on the care and protection & demand of a baby.

[dan]

More on the story in the links below, but justa few highlights - "Just a freak accident" according to the neighbor who apparently was in the next room with several other adults when the attack occurred.

The dog had a history of fighting with other dogs and had recently bit a neighbor trying to
break up a fight between him and another dog. That is why the dog was kept in her bedroom.

The mother is 16, but was 15 when the baby was conceived. The dad was 19 at the time.

Animal Control is not filing any charges because "the mother is going to have to live with this".

Dad vaccinated the dog with vaccines from the feed store.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/family-mourns-newborn-as-pit-bull-put-to-death/1087804

[Jenn]

Thanks for the update, Dan. I'm still not sure how a mom sleeps through her child receiving 50 puncture wounds when the child is on the bed with you. I still think this whole thing stinks to high heaven. From what they are describing, there was a lot of trauma to that little body. No mom sleeps through that. I'll be interested to see what the toxicology report shows on her.

[Beth]

I agree with many of the posts above- there is almost certainly more going on than what is being reported. I actually happened upon this page while searching to see if the reports of her toxicology screening had been released. I'm not a mother, but I am an aunt that has spent many nights with my infant nieces and nephew and I just don't understand how anyone could sleep through a dog mauling a baby. Not only was the dog most certainly making noise, but the baby had to have cried unless the dog killed the baby with the first bite.
As far as statutory rape is concerned, I can see where that would be a concern, however, I don't think that should be looked at until after the terrible death of the infant is solved. Many may disagree, however, I think the baby's death is a little more important IN THIS CASE.(Please note I DID NOT say that statutory rape is not an important issue. On the contrary, I believe it is.)