On Sunday night, a 3 or 4 day old toddler (reports are conflicting) was killed by the family pet.
The new parents had just recently brought the child home, and apparently left the child alone in a room together with the family's pet 'pit bull' for "just a few seconds" and the dog bit the newborn and the child later died at the hospital. The child has been identified as Justin Valentin.
This is obviously an awful tragedy for the family who went from having such joyous time in their lives turn into likely the most tragic.
Having a newborn brought into the family home is tough for a dog -- and takes a lot of diligence for the dog's owner to be sure to manage the newborn and the dog, understand the dog's behavior to avoid such tragedies. In fact, the fear over dog bites on children is a leading cause of dogs getting relinquished to shelters.
Most homes never have an incident like this -- and seldom are they so tragic to be fatal. Since January 2008, there have been 11 fatalities involving newborn infants (less than 1 month old) in North America . While some will use this incident to try to create hysteria about the breed of dog involved, it should be pointed out that there were 7 different breeds of dogs involved in those 12 fatalities -- including a Jack Russell Terrier, a Labrador Retriever and a German Shepherd. In fact, Huskies have been responsible for 5 of those deaths.
Real progress can be made if, instead of looking at this as a breed-issue, we have an honest conversation with parents about dos and don'ts with a newborn infant and the family dog. If we can help people to understand dog body language, understand to never, even for a moment, leave their child alone with the family dog -- regardless of the breed of dog, and how to properly integrate the newborn into the family.
A couple of years ago I did an interview with Jennifer Shyrock of Dogs & Storks. Jennifer founded Dogs & Storks -- which is a national dog training program designed for parents to teach them how to integrate their dog with children coming into the home. Programs like Dogs and Storks help educate dog owners/parents and focus on REAL solutions to helping prevent tragedies like this one and should be the first sources we go to for education about the causes of these tragedies (vs people with no canine experience who want to do nothing else except spread hysteria).
Speaking of the Dogs & Storks -- they have a great overview today of why dogs should not be left with infants even for just a moment in A Baby, A Dog and a "Moment".
This story has been picked up by well over 200 media outlets -- including national outlets like CNN and Fox News.
Nancy Grace was running up the ZOMG It's a PITBULL! flag last night on her show when she covered this story.
Posted by: YesBiscuit! | October 27, 2010 at 12:57 PM
Usually when Nancy Grace is on the opposing side of the story than the side I'm on I feel pretty comfortable about my position. For the life of me I cannot figure out why anyone would watch her show or why Fox would give her airtime.
Posted by: Brent | October 27, 2010 at 01:01 PM
a horrible tragedy for the infant.
but in these cases there is almost always another piece of information that comes out later.. like WHY the parents didn't hear the screams which the poor infant must have been emitting. I don't believe "just a few seconds" either
In several of these cases, it turns out the parents were not actually in the vicinity, or were drugged into stupor. I remember the case where a pit bull puppy chewed the genitals off a baby while the mother slept off her drug stupor.. and it turned out the puppy had routinely foraged in the diaper pail.
Posted by: EmilyS | October 27, 2010 at 01:46 PM
It IS a horrible tragedy. I think when you are a sleep deprived parent, it only feels like a few seconds. She was in the shower. I can't take a few second shower. If my baby were crying while I was in the shower, I wouldn't think it was anything more than a fussy infant. I can understand when you trust a dog because it is good with your two year old that you would naturally assume (uneducated about how quickly an infant goes from boring to fascinating to a dog) that your baby would be safe around it "for a few seconds." I think this was just a poor decision made by a sleep deprived mind. Now she will live with the guilt of this tragedy. The question is - how do you reach parents with dogs??? Because now this will just become a 'blame the breed' issue and you'll have a parent leave their infant alone with their golden retriever because 'it's not like it's a pit bull' only to have the same tragedy befall them (with less media coverage).
I can't watch Nancy Grace. Ignorance makes my stomach turn and she's full of it (not just the dog issue, but EVERY issue).
Posted by: Jennie | October 27, 2010 at 02:26 PM
And thank you, Brent, for covering this. Always the voice of reason!
Posted by: Jennie | October 27, 2010 at 02:27 PM
DIdnt a dachsund chew off a toddlers genitals a few years back? Where was Nancy Grace then? Who knows if they were in the shower, tired, or drugged up. It is a hard lesson to learn, but you cant leave your dog alone with your baby.
Posted by: kelly | October 28, 2010 at 01:09 AM
Thank you Brent for posting my information...This is such a tragedy and my heart goes out to the entire family. The baby, the dog, the parents and brother all are reasons why we MUST keep getting education out there vs. blaming a breed or person. I wish the big media would see that but....all they see is drama and an opportunity to bash a type of dog. Very sad. We could really make a difference if they just once would follow up these stories with positive solutions vs. blame and fear tactics.....How many parents killed their child today? And they choose to focus on a private devastating tragedy to a family just to keep a type of dog as a "hot topic." Pathetic.
Posted by: Jennifer Shryock | October 28, 2010 at 06:19 AM
This is another tragic incident. I really feel for all involved and wish bad things did not have to happen.
The media, especially Nancy Grace who defines how media has gone bad, truly makes this so much worse for everybody. Each time the story comes out in another media outlet, I swear people register it in their head as another pit bull attack, not the same story. So, it goes from one attack to 200 attacks in many brains. A few years back (2008, I believe), OH had the same exact type of story, but from a Husky. It NEVER made it to Cleveland, OH news (less than an hour away), nor national news. What amazed me was how it was reported as an accident, and how many folks stood up for the dog in the blog, even though it was the SAME EXACT type of incident.
Posted by: Carianne | October 28, 2010 at 09:17 AM
Terrible story, but I have a feeling there's more to the story, as they say. I'm firmly in the corner with EmilyS on this one.
"Swift Justice with Nancy Grace" is on the Fox Network but her horrible talk show is on HLN at night. I haven't quite figured that out.
Posted by: kmk | October 28, 2010 at 09:27 AM
Baby gates people! They are not only to keep kids in but to keep dogs out. Please teach your dogs to respect the baby gate. Even if you don't have kids you will appreciate it when you try to refinish your floors.
Nancy Grace had twins at like 56 - no wonder she can't figure out this was a problem with responsible parenting, not the dog. I'm sure her kids will appreciate her "passion" when they graduate from high school without any living parents.
Posted by: MichelleD | October 28, 2010 at 09:51 AM
Twins at age 56?????
now THAT'S what I call some swift justice for Nancy Grace!
;-)
Posted by: kmk | November 01, 2010 at 10:30 AM