Dog Bites off Baby’s Genitals
June 16, 2008 by Eliza Ferree
Filed under News & Media
No, this is not a joke, this happened over the weekend (no not my baby) to an Indiana family. This is something I really feel needs to be talked about on blogs though, the care between pets and the owner’s children.
What happened? A mother had just got back home from delivering her newspapers around 6 a.m. She was tired and decided to put her and her child, a 1-month-old boy, back to bed. She slept until 1p.m. When she woke up she realized her newborn son’s diaper was off and that he was in a different location. Upon looking at the diaper she spotted blood and immediately took him to a local hospital where he had to be rushed to St. Joseph for immediate surgery. Why? Their pet dog had bit off the baby’s testicles and actually pulled them out of the scrotum!
She did give the police/Animal Control the Okay to euthanize the dog. Before you ask, the baby is in stable condition. I’ve no other news on that though. As for the mom, the police say they won’t be charging her with neglect because it was just a horrible accident. The dog in question was not a pit, bull or anything of that nature. It was a cross between a poodle and a terrier. This baby, even though the damage and scars it will endure is lucky compared to many.
My question is: Why did the mom not hear the baby scream? Wouldn’t this hurt if the dog bit the baby and ripped out his testicles? I’m sure the poor little man was screaming. The 5-year-old woke mom because he couldn’t find the remote. Why not to say, “Mom the dog ate my brother?” I understand things happen but it sounds like there is more than just the dog eating this little boy.
Now for those of you that do own a dog, please, please, please train your dog to be around children. Watch it around your own children as well as others and if you can’t watch it put it in a crate. I will be following up on this and how you can protect your children around your pets. Too many babies die a year because of a dog attacking them and normally it is their own family dog.
My heart goes out to that little boy that will be struggling for some time. I really do hope he heals fast and is not in any pain.
STUNNINGLY SAD!!!! Poor little guy. Life has just begun for him and this has already happened. Devastating and, I agree – something must be up here… very weird story…
I agree that this child’s genitals being mutilated is HORRIBLE, but I’m not buying this story.
1. Dog attacks are loud. If the baby was sleeping in the bed with her there’s no way she could have slept through his screams AND the noise the dog made unless she was drugged. Mothers of 1-month-old babies do not sleep like that. Seriously. And if the 5-year-old could successfully wake her up to ask about the TV remote, I suspect she’s not THAT heavy a sleeper.
2. Who was watching her children for the SEVEN HOURS she was sleeping during the day? If she doesn’t have a caregiver for a 5-year-old and a 1-month old for SEVEN HOURS of being completely useless, that IS neglect in my book. And especially with a pet in the house.
3. Were the child’s testicles found IN the dog? Was there evidence IN or ON the dog that it had attacked the baby? Or did they just euthanize it on an assumption? Ripping off a baby’s testicles is not a normal dog behavior. Oftentimes dog “attacks” on children are prompted by the child’s doing something that irritates the dog, like pulling its tail or poking it incessantly, and the dog bites to stop the behavior. No way was an infant doing that.
And Eliza, I know you meant no harm, but I take exception to the suggestion that this would have been, for lack of a better term, acceptable had it been a pit bull “or anything of that nature.” Pit bulls, rottweilers, and other so-called violent breeds” are excellent family dogs and great with children. They have a bad reputation because cruel and stupid people take advantage of their strength by encouraging violent behavior for their own entertainment or other misguided purposes. Like any other dog, it’s all about how the animal is raised. If nothing else, I think this story demonstrated exactly how true that is. That is, IF the dog actually did attack the child, which I’m not convinced is what happened.
I want proof that the dog did it, because this does NOT add up. I’m wondering if the 5-year-old did it and they blamed the dog to protect him.
P.S. I hold the mother 100% responsible for this.
Kristen King- Sorry I offended you, I only meant that the only dog attack stories you hear about are those dogs. It is rare that I ever hear of a poodle/terrier attacking a child. I’m sure it happens though but many focus on those breeds when it is announced in the paper. I think all people that have dogs/cats/animals period should be careful when bringing home a child. Many just think it’s a pet and it’ll adapt to a child and this is not always the case.
As for this mom, I agree, something just doesn’t add up and I too thought maybe the 5-year-old did something. But what amazes me the most is the mom slept through everything and to sleep that long with two children in the house at their ages is just beyond me.
Maybe it’s just the “dream of becoming a CSI” that makes me over think this… but I’m with Kristen in that dog attacks are violent. It’s not like a dog would lay down to have a Sunday brunch on human flesh like that.
The dog attack would be violent and I’m not sure how much the mom had to drink or what drugs she was on – but you’d have to be in a coma to not hear the dog and the baby shrills.
I’m awfully suspicious of the brother. Could he have taken the baby to another area where he wouldn’t be heard and could he have been acting out in jealousy? To attack the genitals – could the brother have wanted a sister?
There’s just FAR too much that does not add up here. NO Mother who can sleep from 5 AM to 1 PM with two small children should have custody of their kids. I’m sorry – but animals take care of and guard their offspring much better then that.
And I’m with Kristen in that pitts and rots do get a bad rap. I think poor quality breeding and care of the dogs contribute to the more aggressive natures. Owners with dogs who attack people should be locked in a cage with other dogs who attack people.
Just sayin’
I’m with Kristen 100%.
How the heck can she have not known this was going on unless she was drugged or intoxicated? The baby was in the bed with her, and she didn’t notice it a) getting out of the bed or b) being attacked by the dog? Puh-leeze.
And the deal with the breed is 100% spot on with Kristen as well. I don’t care what breed the dog is, if it’s raised to be gentle and tolerant of children (and this woman supposedly has a 5 year old, right?) then it wouldn’t have just randomly attacked the infant.
For what it’s worth – what kind of idiot goes to sleep for 7 hours with a 5 year old AND a dog running loose when there’s an infant in the house? I mean, come on already. She is absolutely neglectful, and I don’t care if the cop took mercy on her, she needs to pay for what she’s allowed to happen to her son, be it by the dog, or as Kristen said, by the 5 year old.
this is insane! there is no way the mom slept thru her son being attacked by a dog…let alone that the other child didn’t hear or notice anything. something is up…
So the dog took off the diaper? And then carried the baby from his bed (was it a crib) to somewhere else?
Definitely fishy. The dog might have messed around after the fact, but I don’t thing the dog was really responsible based on the details presented.
Also, do you have a link to a news story about it?
But then again, maybe it is true. It isn’t an isolated event:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/dog.mutilates.genitals.2.490060.html
sorry the link didn’t appear, I forgot an “html” part. But here is the article:
http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=8497320
could be coincidence but both babies were taken to a Luthern hospital, not sure if this is in the same area or not.
Thanks for the link. Lake County (from my story) is north of Chicago if I’m not mistaken so definitely unrelated.
Very sad no matter what actually happened.
It does sound horrid.
I can never understand leaving pets and kids alone without adult supervision, regardless of the breed of the pet. Poor kid. Hope he recovers well.
Something is seriously wrong with this picture. I wish some authority would investigate it more.
Pit bulls are of the terrier group, and they all share a number of characteristics, but this does not sound like typical dog behavior, period.
I have three unneutered male dogs in my house (Yes, I intend to fix them one day.) and none of them act this way, even with my wild child toddler. My pit is actually the best with kids, but you should have heard the lectures I got while I was pregnant!
I feel for that poor child and it makes me sad about the dog, too.
None of this sounds right at all. I agree completely with that. This is extremely suspicious and there’s no way this is the end of the story. Some human in that house is a psychopath, I’d bet. This absolutely cannot be all there is to this story. It doesn’t add up in anyway. What’s the original source of this news? Do you have a link? I’d be curious to see what the news follows up with because I’m sure something will be uncovered.
I would like to note that I saw this on the news locally as I live in Indiana. The “dog” in question was a 7-8 month old PUPPY and it was a DACHSHUND.
There was a case similar to this last november in Chicago the dog in question then was also a dachshund.
If we think this is just neglect or weirdness or lack of training the dog, we are making a mistake. This is not that weird at all. What people persist in failing to realize is that dogs are not the same species as humans, and do not share our priorities. They can’t be trained to share our priorities. The key here is to keep animals absolutely separate from babies – no matter how much training is provided you could never know whether your dog will think of doing something that makes sense to him, something you could never have predicted and therefore couldn’t train against: like biting off your babies testicles. The key here is do not trust members of a different species around your baby.
ps, it’s inappropriate for people to announce that the parents or (in one insane suggestion) 5 year old are to blame. the skin on a scrotum is thin, and it’s not impossible that the baby didn’t even wake up before everyone realized what had just happened. it’s also not inconceivable that a dog would instinctively disarm (by castration) a new male threat to his position of dominance in the family. this is normal dog psychology. again, the thing to learn is that you can’t predict dogs’ behavior (similar to cats – ordinarily completely harmless – habit of smothering babies by sleeping on them. different species, different priorities). If people don’t learn this lesson from such scenarios they are making themselves very vulnerable.
I was reading about this and could’nt believe my eyes. I don’t believe for one second that the dog did this to the infant! It’s possible for a dog to do this to a baby, but in this case, I don’t think so. Some people think the five year old has something to do with the incident, but I think the mother some how has something to do with the situation. There is no way that the mother slept through her child being victimized.
I do not believe this
I have a pit bull terrier, and they are very friendly dogs that get a bad rap because people don’t know how to treat them with love and use them to fight. He’s always playing with my 2 year old niece but we think he’s a bit afraid of her.
I heard another story of a woman addicted to drugs who fell asleep during a binge and couldn’t hear the baby’s screams while the dog ripped her baby’s testicles off. They said the dog hadn’t been fed in days because of the mother’s neglect. Not sure if the 2 are related.
Those retarded dog lovers who insist on “I don’t believe for a second this” make me cringe.
WHY can’t this be true?? If you think that dogs don’t attack people (especially “intruders”, which the one month old baby was probably for the dog), then you’re extremely likely to win a Darwing Award one of these days.