Update 8/6 - Turns out the aggressive past of these dogs is becoming more clear. The dog apparently had shown aggression before to both the 4 year old son and the 2 year old victim. The dogs had also attacked and killed the family's Akita as well. Previous signs of aggression are a sure sign that you need to fix the problems with your dogs...because if you don't, the behaviors will escalate. Dogs don't just snap. Their behaviors build up over a period of time and recognizing and correcting these behaviors early is important.
Update: According to the owner, one of the dogs, named Kiwi, had shown prior instances of aggression, including attacking and killing the family's Chihuahua a year ago. "I never let Kiwi aroud my grandchildren because I didn't trust him," said Hayashi.
As Karen Delise of the National Canine Research Council says, a major act of aggression is never a dog's first sign of aggression, but usually its last.
Dog owners, if you have a dog that shows signs of aggression, PLEASE call a trainer and work with a professional on having the dog overcome its issues. There are numberous great trainers out there that can help with overcoming aggression issues -- you just have to be willing to work at it. And it's your responsibility as a dog owner to make it work.
Original Story:
Yesterday, a 2 year old child, Jacob Bisbee, was attacked and killed by three dogs at his family's home. The dogs, currently being called 'pit bulls', were in the garage of the home, when the 2 year old toddler opened the door to the garage and was attacked by the dogs.
There were a couple of adults in the home at the time, but it sounds as if they may have been in bed at the time of the attack. According to the child's step grandfather, it was not uncommon for the 2 year old to crawl into bed in the mornings with his grandmother to sleep some more. But around 8:45, Jacob's 4 year old brother came into the bedroom and hinted that something may have been wrong.
Tragically, there was.
The three dogs in the garage were all killed by animal control, as were two other dogs that were in the back yard at the time.
The step grandfather, Steven Hayashi, owned the dogs and has been arrested and is being held on the suspicion of felony child endangerment and possession of mischievous animals that result in death.
Young toddlers wandering away unattended continues to be a common theme among dog bite-related fatalities. Last year, of the 33 dog bite fatalities, 13 of them involved a toddler aged 1-5 that was attacked by a dog - in 9 of those cases, the child was left unsupervised with the dogs (there were 9 different breeds of dogs involved in these 13 attacks).
Young toddlers shouldn't be left with dogs (regardless of breed type) unsupervised - -and proper percautions should be taken to ensure that young children are not able to open doors and leave unattended. Work should also be done with the dogs to be sure they are well-socialized with children living in the home to help make sure something doesn't happen just in case something happens and they do end up alone together. While fatal attacks like this are very rare given the population of 75 million dogs in this country it is still always smart to be cautious.
There has been very little other information provided about this story -- but it has been picked up by 260+ news sources already -- including multiple national media outlets including CNN.
My heart goes out to this family as they deal with this tragedy.
As always, I'll update this with any new news as it is released.
For More on this story, see:
Bad Rap: Concord Tragedy - The phones are ringing
Bad Rap: Media Has a Field Day
For the Pit Bulls - These were not pets - discussing the difference between companion dogs and resident dogs.
The article says something about extended family living in the house. How did no one hear anything? I always ask this question because it does seem so unlikely to me that a kid being killed by dogs would be quiet. Maybe he was knocked unconscious at the start of the attack?
I've never been within earshot of a fatal dog attack to a human (*knock on wood*) but many years ago a pack of dogs mauled a Cocker Spaniel to death across the street from me. I was playing ball with one of our dogs in our yard at the time. I will never forget those sounds. They haunt me to this day.
Posted by: YesBiscuit! | July 23, 2010 at 01:33 PM
It never ceases to amaze me how "breed identifications" are created in cases like this.
This case is a perfect example.
The female dog (Sadie) was a dog of unknown genetics and origin as admitted to by the owner.
So, any breed identification of her is purely speculation.
Sadie then gave birth to the other two dogs suspected to be involved in the attack.
No one knows the sire of these two offspring.
It is amazing that while no one yet knows the origin of Sadie or the type of dog that sired her two offspring - yet ALL these dogs are identified as "pit bulls."
Clearly, all "identifications" on these dogs have been made by people who have NO knowledge of the genetics of any of these dogs.
Posted by: Karen Delise | July 25, 2010 at 12:36 PM
I notice in the beginning of this post it is mentioned that the dog killed a chihuahua prior to this incident, and I have a question. Why, because a dog has killed another animal, do we call it vicious? Many breeds of dogs were created over the centuries to aid us with hunting, some breeds were even created to hunt large game, such as lions, jaguars, and small bears. Some hunters do still use dogs, such as boar hunters (the dogs catch and hold on to the boar, then the hunter kills the boar), and those cute little terriers were bred to kill rats, and other small game, like badgers. These breeds still retain the instincts to hunt, and to a big dog, a chihuahua may be no different than a squirrel. Aggression to other animals DOES NOT equal aggression to people! They are completely separate things. For example, I petsit for three huskies now and then who will kill and eat critters in the yard. They are three of the sweetest dogs, and welcome every visitor wholeheartedly on to the property. I also know an APBT who is very dog aggressive, but he's never laid his teeth on a person, he's very sweet. I knew a lab who was very fear aggressive to other dogs, but is a big silly love bug with people. I could go on.
Certainly, if a dog is leash reactive, he may redirect on a person because he can't get at what he's reacting to, but he's not actually trying to hurt the person, and he doesn't actually want to hurt the person, he's just taking out his frustration on the nearest thing.
My heart goes out to this poor child who died due to his family's negligence.
Posted by: CristyF | July 25, 2010 at 05:54 PM
Cristy,
I thought it was worth mentioning because the owner noted that he didn't trust the dog because it was aggressive -- which leads me to believe there were other warning signs beyond that.
Yes, there is a reality that most types of dogs were originally bred to hunt something - -rabbits, squirrels, vermin, birds, lions -- whatever. And I agree that aggression toward other animals doesn't always translate to people -- that said, I think we owe it to the dogs to be sure there is at least some level of tolerance for other animals, because one slip of a leash should not equal a tragedy of some type. Most dogs with work with professional trainers can be socilized to the point where there is at least some tolerance -- which is needed. Just managing around a situation is doable, but really not the best option in my opinion.
Posted by: Brent | July 25, 2010 at 06:02 PM
I just wanted to add that while I agree that dog aggression and prey-drive do not necessarily equate with agression towards humans, I wish more owners would take appropriate precautions (and/or work with a trainer to help desensitize the animal). A friend's dog was recently mauled (nearly to death) by a "territorial" pit bull type dog who simply broke through the screen that was separating him from the outside world.
Thankfully, the attack happened when it did rather than 90 seconds earlier when a small child had her arms wrapped around the lab who was victim of the attack. I can only imagine the headlines if the child had been hurt when the "pit bull" was "just" after the "intruding" stranger dog.
The homeowner of the attacking dog had allegedly told neighbors that he reinforced his garage door screen with a metal grate because of the "pit bull" but then they leave other screened egress points open/unreinforced?? Please, if your dog has high prey-drive (like mine does for cats) or is "territorial" (or DA) like this other dog, use extra precautions when you have doors or windows open!
Posted by: Lori | July 25, 2010 at 07:25 PM
And that's the rub, isn't it Lori? If only people were more responsible with their dogs, so many of these things wouldn't happen. People shouldn't own carnivorous animals if they aren't prepared for what they can do. Rescue once had a dog returned because it killed the guinea pig. And they thought a dog with normal prey drive instincts wouldn't chase, catch and kill a small furry critter? We need to stop focusing on the fact that dogs have hunting drive, and start focusing on the humans that are allowing these dogs to practice these drives inappropriately.
Posted by: CristyF | July 28, 2010 at 04:35 PM
My friends toddler was killed about two years ago in Pleasant Hill. She was at work and left the child with a babysitter, who took the child to a friends house who had a pit bull. The pit bull attacked the toddler in the presence of the baby sitter but she could not stop it. A pit bull who has never been aggressive can suddenly snap and kill.
Posted by: Ginny Blair | February 25, 2011 at 02:35 PM
Sorry for your friend`s loss Ginny but dogs don`t suddenly snap and kill.
There`s always more to the story as you can see from the Final Investigations from 2009.
http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2009-DBRF-Booklet-FINAL-11.pdf
We need to stop making this about Breed because as you can see from the Investigation into the Fatality of the 17 mo old in California there was more to the story and there was nothing to substantiate the Breed ID of the dog made by the Media at that time.
Posted by: J.M. | February 25, 2011 at 03:10 PM