North Carolina: One-year-old girl remains in critical condition after being attacked by family pit bull

NORTH CAROLINA -- A 1-year-old girl remains in critical condition after being attacked by the family dog in Kenly Tuesday night, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said.

The incident occurred around 8 p.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of Old Pebble Lane.

The sheriff’s office said the family dog, a pit bull, was kept outside. When someone went out to feed the animal, it darted in, spotted the baby, made a beeline for her and attacked.

The child's mother told a 911 dispatcher her daughter was bitten on the head. In the call, the mother can be heard repeatedly apologizing to her baby girl while family members applied pressure to the wound with a towel. The little girl was having trouble breathing and was drifting in and out of consciousness.

The mother explained to the dispatcher she tried to pull the dog off the child and the animal turned on her.

After the attack, family members were using a shock collar to stop the dog from coming back inside the home. They also threatened to kill the animal with a gun.

The dog was shot by responding deputies before Animal Control arrived. The dog was later put down by an animal control officer Tuesday night.

The girl remains in critical condition at WakeMed.

Ernie Wilkinson, director of Johnston County Animal Services arrived on scene shortly after deputies.

“This wasn’t a bite this was an attack,” Wilkinson said.

"Dog bites yes, traumatic bites not really. Not that often. It's very sad and very tragic when it happens," he said. "The emphasis right now is to put our thoughts and prayers on this family, especially this little girl. That's what's important."

It is not common for law enforcement to shoot an animal, according to Wilkinson.

“Law enforcement never discharges its weapon unless it’s matter of life or death or a dire emergency. And I’m sure given the circumstances it was something like that,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said deputies have not been called to the house before and as far as they know, the dog was not a “trouble animal.”

The incident comes a few weeks after a toddler was mauled by a five-year-old pit bull - mastiff mix.

Someone want to explain why they felt the need to interview a pit nutter about how great pit bulls are despite this pit bull trying to kill this baby - that was supposedly part of its 'pack'?

Fearna Tyndall, a board member of the group “The Positive Pit Bull,” advocates on behalf of pit bulls.

Clearly this woman has no idea what she's talking about

“Pit bulls are inherently good dogs. They’re not naturally aggressive, and we don’t know the whole story,” she said. “I think that people who leave their dogs outside all the time chained up, they do a great disservice for people who own big dogs because those dogs do get cranky, and they do sometimes get mean.”

Tyndall rescued her pit bull, Stitch, almost eight years ago. He serves as a therapy dog, working with kids in schools.

“One of the things that I’m really careful about with my dog is making sure that he’s safe wherever he goes, and he’s not put in a position where his behavior is going to be bad,” she said.

If this 'therapy dog' is so gentle and docile and great with kids, why does she feel the need to use a prong/pinch collar on him?

She feels the need to use a prong collar but doesn't even know how to
fit it properly on the dog, but she's the local expert on pit behavior(!)

 

There have been efforts in the past to ban pit bulls and other breeds of dogs in some communities in North Carolina. The ASPCA has come out against such proposals, saying there’s no evidence they’re effective at improving public safety.

Instead, the agency says it’s important to recognize the problem of dangerous dogs and hold individual owners accountable for their dogs’ actions.

(WNCN - Oct 13, 2015)