Joshua was mauled by a bull mastiff inside his parent's Pasco home Friday afternoon all while under the watchful eye of his mother. Authorities first reported the dog that attacked the boy was a pit bull, however, the mother says authorities got it wrong. She feels the confusion regarding the breed occurred because her family owns a pit bull.
"All I kept screaming was, 'Oh my God! Oh my God!" Stephanie Murphy recalled.
Murphy says the dog, who is named Champ, belongs to a neighbor. The mother and neighbor struck up a conversation while Champ played with Joshua.
[Someone want to explan how a bull mastiff 'plays' with a 10-month-old baby?]
According to Murphy, her son played with Champ 'hundreds of times before' and there was never a problem.
[The baby is 10-months-old... but has 'played' with the dog 'hundreds of times before'. Hundreds could mean 200 or 900... let's assume it means 400. That means she left the baby with this dog FOUR HUNDRED TIMES in 10 months.]
"He snapped," Murphy said.
The attack lasted mere seconds. Joshua had a laceration running from his forehead down to his lip. The dog also but a chunk out of his neck and the back of his head.
Murphy said she turned head to address the neighbors when she hear growling sounds.
"I cannot believe the damage he did it just a second," she said.
Wrapped in a hospital blanket, her shirt still stained with her son's blood, Murphy told ABC Action News she did everything she could to comfort her son. She recalled running to him, swaddling him and jumping into the car to take him to the hospital.
"We were flying down U.S. 19, blaring our horns. I was screaming for people to get out of the way," she said while crying.
When Murphy got to the hospital doctors determined he needed to be Bayflighted to All Children's Hospital where he was immediately rushed into surgery.
Murphy spent most of the afternoon crying in a hospital waiting room. Joshua's father, who is a commercial fisherman is on a trip in the Gulf of Mexico, and has yet to learn of the tragic accident.
"I keep thinking, 'What if I would have done this? Maybe this wouldn't have happened," Murphy said.
Murphy shared a video of Little Joshua with ABC Action News that she shot just hours before the attack. Joshua, only wearing a diaper, was using his height chair to prop himself up while he nibbled at food.
"He is such a good baby. Such a good baby," Murphy said.
Pasco County Animal Services took possession of the dog. They are investigating and will determine whether or not the dog should be euthanized.
Meanwhile, Murphy said the dog's owner is very apologetic and feels badly about what happened.
[He wasn't very apologetic when he kept trying to moon the news crew and was threatened with arrest by the police.]
(abcactionnews.com - June 14, 2013)
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