Massachusetts: Boy killed by pit bulls in Lowell is mourned at funeral

MASSACHUSETTS -- Pallbearers eased the little boy’s narrow coffin from the hearse and turned to carry it up the steps into St. Michael Church.

Behind them, a small group of family and friends huddled still and silent in the cold. The only sound was the idling of the police motorcycles that had pulled up moments before to block traffic.

Mourners wore T-shirts that showed the smiling face of the little boy they had come to bury: 7-year-old Javian Candolario, who was mauled to death last Sunday by two pit bulls in Lowell. At the funeral Saturday morning, another young boy, who looked not much older than Javian, helped carry his coffin up and into the church.

Candolario’s funeral was private, and family and friends did not speak with reporters.

 

 

The child was attacked on Clare Street late last Saturday afternoon, after he apparently entered a fenced area where two pit bulls were kept next to a home, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. Neighbors said they summoned help as soon as they saw the dogs dragging the boy, but it was too late.

When police arrived, they shot one of the dogs, but it jumped the fence and ran a mile before they caught it and put it down. The other dog was taken by animal control.

The boy’s death has reignited debate in Lowell about whether pit bulls are too dangerous for residents to keep as pets.

THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS LITTLE BOY'S DEATH

The city tried in 2011 to regulate the breed after a string of vicious attacks, requiring pit bulls to be spayed or neutered as well as muzzled and leashed when off their owners’ property, but the ban was overturned after the state passed a law preventing local communities from banning specific breeds of dogs.

On Tuesday night, the Lowell City Council voted unanimously to have the city manager investigate “the viability of measures” that can be taken “against certain breeds of dogs.”

Saturday’s funeral lasted about an hour. When it was over, mourners spilled out of the church, some weeping. Before the procession to the cemetery began, a woman walked over to the back of the hearse that held the boy’s body and pressed her head to the windshield. When she turned to rejoin the group, another woman walked over and made the sign of the cross against the glass.

 

 

(Boston Globe - Oct 28, 2017)

Earlier:

• Massachusetts: Pit Bulls attack and maul seven-year-old boy to death
• Massachusetts: Lowell boy, 7, killed by pit bulls: ‘No one knew what to do’
• Massachusetts: The Legal Implications Of The Lowell Pit Bull Case
• Massachusetts: In Memory of Javian Candolario, mauled to death by a veteran's "therapy" Pit Bulls