Late Thursday night, 4 year old Jayelin Graham was fatally attacked by a Cane Corso that lived in his family's apartment in Brooklyn. The boy's mother and the four kids, aged 10 months, 2, 4 and 5 were returning home from a shopping trip and the mother apparently went back to get the keys out of the stroller she had left behind -- leaving the younger kids alone with the dog. When the mother returned, the dog was on top of the 4 year old and fatally bit the child in the neck.
The attacking dog, along with another dog (described sometimes as a German Shepherd mix, sometimes as a Husky mix) was removed form the home.
The dog was apparently owned by the boy's mother's boyfriend, Damian Jones. According to the NY Daily News, Jones has a bit of a rap sheet -- including busts for weapons possession, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment. Neighbors have also said that they were afraid of the dog and that Jones actively trained the dogs to be aggressive.
The story initially broke as a story about 'pit bull' that attacked the young boy -- but was later changed once authorities got to evaluate the dog. Of course, the media picked up the story and ran it as a 'pit bull' story at first -- but then replaced 'pit bull' with "dog" in the changed headlines. It's always interesting to see how the media treats different types of dogs differently in headlines. Pit Bullentin Legal News has a screen grab of an early headline -- but you can see them all in google cache's too.
Regardless of the type of dog, it obviously isn't about that. The fault clearly comes when a dog is actually trained to be aggressive and then is left alone with small children. In spite of attempts by some to make this about the type of dog, the real focus should be on the human-created circumstances that led up to the attack.
My heart goes out to the family in this tragic incident. The story was picked up by over 300 media outlets.
I saw an interview with the mother. So incredibly sad. She didn't have a clue. The boy friend had to know what his dogs were capable of doing.
Posted by: Jan | May 31, 2011 at 11:09 AM
The boyfriend had a conviction of endangering a child and he was around all these very young children? Crazy. So sorry for everyone but he needs to really be held accountable - of course, the dogs will pay.
Posted by: Roberta Beach | May 31, 2011 at 12:34 PM
Oh boy, yet one more story of "Mommy's Boyfriend of the Month" killing/molesting the kids, but this one has a bit of a twist. The problem lies not with the dog, but with selfish women that put their love lives ahead of their childrens' welfare and safety and then pick bad guys to boot!
This story ran in the Kansas City Star (a very short piece). My husband and I said "well, it wasn't a pit bull" because everything in the article just said "dog". No mention of the boyfriend in what we read.
Posted by: kmk | May 31, 2011 at 01:32 PM
I read that there were four dogs in the home and that the boyfriend would beat and kick them to make them mean. A neighbor asked him what kind of dogs they were and his answer was, "Monster dogs." How that woman can say that the dogs were never aggressive when they were beaten and kicked daily shows how far in the sand she had her head. She failed her child miserably. It's sad that children have to suffer because of irresponsible adults around them. The grandmother said that she herself had called child services on her own daughter numerous times, but the kids were always returned to her. The photos I saw of the apartment were disgusting. The children were living in filth with a convicted felon. These poor kids were a tragedy with or without those dogs.
"Machete" - now there is a family dog name for you.
That poor child. :-(
Posted by: Jennie | May 31, 2011 at 02:23 PM
Not defending or accusing any breed of dog, but if this pic above is of the dogs that attacled the child, neither of them are true Cane Corso, one may have walked by when a breeding was taking place.
Posted by: Jeupchurch | June 03, 2011 at 11:21 PM