Infant dies from dog attack in South Carolina

Yesterday morning, a 2 month old infant was tragically killed by the family's dog.

The child's mother was at a Doctor's appointment with the 7 year old child. The father was asleep in another rom with a 3 year old child. The newborn, identified as Aiden McGrew, was apparently sitting in a baby swing. The family's dog -- a mixed breed dog that is being called a "retriever/lab mix" for lack of a better description, apparently bit the child mutliple times. The child died later at the hospital.

The dog was new to th family as they had dog-sat for the dog before and the owner decided they no longer wanted to keep him.

The story is all over the news - -and has run in more than 300 news outlets.

The community of Ridgeville has a poverty level of 29% -- which is more than double the national average.

There is probably a lot to say about this incident, but then again, maybe not, as it kind of speaks for itself. It's a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family in this tragic event.

The dog is also not likely an aggressive dog either, or a threat to society. It's actually hard to say what led up to the tragedy, but I doubt "aggression" was the culprit. This is a prime example of the reality that no matter how safe dogs are (and they are incredibly safe), they are animals. And as such, can be involved in something like this. And it's why I repeat, over and over, that regardless of how well behaved your dog is, they should never be left alone and unsupervised with a small child. And it shows over and over why people who insist on trying make dog bites a breed-specific issue are tragically wrong - -and why it is leading to people being less knowledgable about dog behavior and making people LESS safe. Because people mistakenly believe that "their" dog is safe, because it's not one of "those" dogs.

Dogs are dogs, and should be supervised with young children. Always.

My heart goes out to the family and if any more details of this tragedy come up I will certainly fill in the details here.

Comments

[YesBiscuit!]

I found an article which posits that baby swings may trigger dog attacks:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7018452/ns/health-pet_health/t/baby-swings-may-trigger-dog-attack-expert-says/#.T5G3OexH6WQ

[A Facebook User]

I see several issues here:

a.) The baby is left in a swing while the father sleeps in another room with the 3 year old? Who leaves an infant alone in a swing and then goes in the other room to sleep? Why not a play pen? Why not in the same room as the parent? That is mighty odd to me.
b.) Dogs and swings: I have encountered a number of dogs that will get aggressive with kids in swings. I remember an Australian Shepherd that would bite the kids when they got off the swing. I think this has to do with the herding instinct, and the frustration of the inability to deal with a constantly moving small live animal / person. This dog looked to me to be an Australian Shepherd / Golden Retriever cross.
c.) This was aggression, I'm sure of it. The child was dismembered. A fear bite is front teeth punctures. What they blocked from the article was a full description of the injuries. We can tell a lot from the type of injuries. Many of these attacks are skull crushing bites, and often cause the child to be decapitated. That happens when animals attack their own or the young of competitors. They go for the head and crush it, and they don't eat the corpse in most cases, unless they are males. Lions do it to other lions, for example. They go for a skull crushing head bite, and they tear the body apart. You can't assume a dog that is good with people is going to be good with an infant, because there is a different dynamic going on there.
d.) It takes time for a rescue dog to settle into a home. I advise people to take 60 to 90 days to learn about the dog. I'm not sure how long this dog was in the home.
e.) How many times do parents need to be warned that you don't leave infants and dogs alone together? You'd think that people would educate themselves more.

Sam Basso
http://www.samthedogtrainer.com

[Norway]

This is where BSL type societies and fear mongering gets us. More victims. Thanks a lot to people who spray their anti-pitbull garbage. You think only pitbulls can kill someone, or that victims of nonpitbull attacks do not matter? Idiots.

[MzTx]

1st I would like to say Thank You for posting this site.

2nd It is so funny how people were saying that the Baby must have already been dead & the dog was just taking it to the father & how it isn't of the Breed to Attack & Kill( lab). Then the second the Autopsy was revealed- they all started to shout " The dog must have been a Pit Bull". This is complete ignorance & this is why I will continue to post Dog Attacks everywhere I can.

Once again, I respect your work!