Family dog kills one-year-old boy

[Lt-DavidW]

A one-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a pet rottweiler at his grandparents' home, police have said.

Archie-Lee Andrew Hirst was snatched from his seven-year-old aunt's arms in the yard of the house in Chald Lane, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on Friday.

He was taken to hospital with serious injuries but died later.

The dog was shot at the scene by a police marksman. It was destroyed to ensure the safety of others at the address, a police spokesman said.

The boy's family, including his teenage mother, are now receiving support from specially-trained officers, he said.

Det Supt Steve Payne, from West Yorkshire Police, said the boy was staying with his grandparents during the Christmas holidays.

He said: "What we know at this time is that the dog was a family pet, a two-and-a-half year old female rottweiler, which the family had owned for about six months.

"Although the dog lived in the yard of the premises, it had interacted with members of the family including children, and another dog and cat at the house, and had shown no previous signs of any aggression."

Mr Payne said the boy's aunt, aged 16, was caring for him and her two sisters, aged six and seven, in the house.

The 16-year-old girl was upstairs when the seven-year-old carried the baby outside to stroke the dog.

Mr Payne said: "Without any warning, the dog snatched the baby from the youngster's arms and carried him into the yard."

He said the 16-year-old tried to rescue the baby but was unable to do so, despite striking the dog several times.

Paramedics and police arrived within six minutes following an emergency call to police at 1530 GMT, he said.

The baby was taken to Pinderfields General Infirmary where he was pronounced dead.

The boy's parents were at a nearby property at the time.

A post-mortem examination has shown Archie-Lee died from multiple injuries consistent with a dog attack.

The death follows the unlawful killing of five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson who was killed by her uncle's dog in St Helen's on New Year's Day 2007.

The illegal pit bull terrier called Reuben attacked Ellie at the home of her grandmother, Jackie Simpson, who was later found not guilty of manslaughter through gross negligence.

Ellie's uncle Kiel Simpson, 24, was jailed for eight weeks at Liverpool Magistrates' Court in May after admitting owning a dog banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

Chris Window, from the Rottweiler Club, said it was very uncommon for attacks of this nature to take place.

But he said young children should never be left alone with any large breed of dog.

"All breeds of dogs are animals. They do revert to animal instincts. If a dog is confronted with a situation they are not used to, they can react unexpectedly."

WHAT HAPPENED

Archie-Lee is at grandparents' Wakefield home

Aunt, 16, is looking after him and two sisters, six and seven

Seven-year-old takes Archie to kitchen to stroke the dog

Dog snatches Archie, takes him into yard and attacks him

The seven-year-old goes upstairs to tell the 16-year-old

The 16-year-old strikes the dog several times but cannot separate it from Archie

1530 GMT: Aunt phones 999

1536 GMT: Paramedics arrive

1539 GMT: Armed police arrive

Dog shot by police marksman

Archie-Lee dies in hospital

[Source]

Edited December 29, 2007 by Lt-DavidW

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

I thought rottweilers were illegal too. Now it says there is a rottweiler club?

[84Mark]

It was almost 1 year ago when that little girl was killed by her Grandmothers rottweiler in Liverpool - obviously no lessons learnt here.

[DodgeViper]

I thought rottweilers were illegal too. Now it says there is a rottweiler club?

Rottweilers aren't illegal as I know quite a few people that own them. It's American Pit Bulls that are banned in the UK.

[Brodel]

Rottweilers aren't illegal as I know quite a few people that own them. It's American Pit Bulls that are banned in the UK.

Is there some other dog that looks exactly like them then that is legal? When I get the bus to uni and it goes through a fairly rough area, there are dogs that look exactly like pit bull's on practically every corner.

[dwarm]

It all comes down to the owners. :crazy:

The boy's family, including his teenage mother

Kinda says it all about the kind of people/family they are.

[gtho]

A 9 week old baby was just killed by a rottweiler this week in Australia. The dog got into the house and grabbed the baby out of its cot.

[Ji@nBing]

An infant or small child should never be anywhere rear a large dog, even if supervised by adults. Period.

[Stokkolm]

An infant or small child should never be anywhere rear a large dog, even if supervised by adults. Period.

Why not, that's just rediculous.

[Budious]

Rottweilers aren't illegal as I know quite a few people that own them. It's American Pit Bulls that are banned in the UK.

There are Staffordshire Bull Terriers from England, and then their two american cousin breeds, the American Staffordshire Terrier and the American Pit Bull Terrier. The American Staffordshire (Amstaff) Terrier is nothing more than a sub-category of Pit Bull in which breeders select certain characteristics they find appealing. The breeds get an unfair reputation and most raised by any responsible owner are safe pets. The breed also has a reputation for being exceptionally well adjusted to playing with children, many people often mistake "well adjusted for children" to mean infant safe, bad adult supervision and poor socialization between the dog and baby is the fault of the owner if an attack occurs.

[Lasker]

An infant or small child should never be anywhere rear a large dog, even if supervised by adults. Period.

I agree, I have a 8 months daughter and a Labrador mixed with pit-bull and I never let the dog touch her, I always take her in my arms when the dog is present, keeping always the distance. The dog is very friendly but that's not enough with infants, they are animals and you never know when they going to act weird.

[Ji@nBing]

Why not, that's just rediculous.

Because when it all comes down to it, these are predatory animals. How many times have you seen this story? The family dog suddenly kills the baby or child. No history of violence or any other previous indication that it would do such a thing. It's just irresposible to have a large dog around a baby.

Personally I don't like dogs, but you'd better believe if I had one and had kids over, it would be locked up in the yard for the duration of the kids stay with the kids not being allowed anywhere near it. No matter how "sweet" it seems to be.

I agree, I have a 8 months daughter and a Labrador mixed with pit-bull and I never let the dog touch her, I always take her in my arms when the dog is present, keeping always the distance. The dog is very friendly but that's not enough with infants, they are animals and you never know when they going to act weird.

Personally I'd say get rid of the dog. It's not worth risking your daughter for. All it takes is one lapse in judgement or not paying close enough attention, and it's all over. Best case scenario is your daughter is scarred for life. Like you said, you never know what an animal could suddenly do.

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

Do these dogs try to eat the babies or just kill them?

[jwjw1]

Rottweilers aren't illegal as I know quite a few people that own them. It's American Pit Bulls that are banned in the UK.

looks like now the Americans are going to have to ban the UK Rottweilers in the USA....lol

[Janitor]

I'm getting bored of these 'headlines'

[Stokkolm]

Because when it all comes down to it, these are predatory animals. How many times have you seen this story? The family dog suddenly kills the baby or child. No history of violence or any other previous indication that it would do such a thing. It's just irresposible to have a large dog around a baby.

Personally I don't like dogs, but you'd better believe if I had one and had kids over, it would be locked up in the yard for the duration of the kids stay with the kids not being allowed anywhere near it. No matter how "sweet" it seems to be.

Personally I'd say get rid of the dog. It's not worth risking your daughter for. All it takes is one lapse in judgement or not paying close enough attention, and it's all over. Best case scenario is your daughter is scarred for life. Like you said, you never know what an animal could suddenly do.

That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard of. You don't like dogs, therefore, you don't think children should be around them. I'm glad I don't know anybody like that. Also, I haven't heard of the family dog killing the children very much. Every once in a while I hear about some random dog mauled somebody who was walking by or whatever, but not the family dog hurting somebody in the family.

I have three small children and had a Saint Bernard and he was very gentle with the kids. They would climb all over him and he would do nothing, he wouldn't even aggressively play with them. He used to lay in the bottom of my son's exersaucer while he was sitting in it, he loved the kids.

[roadgeek9]

Teenage mother?

[Badtz-Maru]

my dog feels threatened when he's around little children. how do we know if the child or other children in the past didn't abuse the dog?

[metallithrax]

One of the lasses I work with has 2 staffies, and she treats them like kids. They sleep in bed with her, her b/f sometimes has to sleep in the other bed. She is now pregnant. I wonder what her dogs will be like when she has the kid. They could get envious of the attention the kid will get.

The one in the news is only about a mile from my house.

[Brodel]

That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard of. You don't like dogs, therefore, you don't think children should be around them. I'm glad I don't know anybody like that. Also, I haven't heard of the family dog killing the children very much. Every once in a while I hear about some random dog mauled somebody who was walking by or whatever, but not the family dog hurting somebody in the family.

You are probably a pretty responsible person though, these cases are always to do with the owner leaving it unattended etc. As much as owners might 'know' their dog, you can't ignore the fact that they are animals and are not 100% predictable, especially when it's a breed that is only around for the purpose of fighting and in my opinion they shouldn't be around. If a random dog mauls a person walking by, or a family dog hurting someone in the family, it doesn't really change the argument.

[Ji@nBing]

That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard of. You don't like dogs, therefore, you don't think children should be around them. I'm glad I don't know anybody like that. Also, I haven't heard of the family dog killing the children very much. Every once in a while I hear about some random dog mauled somebody who was walking by or whatever, but not the family dog hurting somebody in the family.

I have three small children and had a Saint Bernard and he was very gentle with the kids. They would climb all over him and he would do nothing, he wouldn't even aggressively play with them. He used to lay in the bottom of my son's exersaucer while he was sitting in it, he loved the kids.

It has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like dogs. It's about keeping your kids safe. As far as you not hearing of the family dog killing kids, I don't know what news you watch, but it happens all the time.

For the record my mom has a big Rottweiler. I like the dog a lot, even though I don't like dogs in general. It's a really sweet, gentle dog. She still locks her outside on the deck when my brother's 3 small children go over to visit though, and they aren't allowed near the dog. It's just the prudent thing to do. You never know what a big dog like that will do.

[Stokkolm]

It has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like dogs. It's about keeping your kids safe. As far as you not hearing of the family dog killing kids, I don't know what news you watch, but it happens all the time.

For the record my mom has a big Rottweiler. I like the dog a lot, even though I don't like dogs in general. It's a really sweet, gentle dog. She still locks her outside on the deck when my brother's 3 small children go over to visit though, and they aren't allowed near the dog. It's just the prudent thing to do. You never know what a big dog like that will do.

The only thing that I'd be worried about with a big dog around little kids would be the dog getting excited and running the child over. Other than that, as long as I'm around I'm not worried at all. Now obviously, if it was a dog I didn't know I would be more cautious, but not with a family pet.

[Miuku.]

It has nothing to do with the fact that I don't like dogs. It's about keeping your kids safe. As far as you not hearing of the family dog killing kids, I don't know what news you watch, but it happens all the time.

So with that in mind, let's start isolating children from each other - after all if you look at the statistics they are more likely to harm or kill each other than a pet dog.

For the record my mom has a big Rottweiler

For the record I've been raised up since day 1 with more or less large dogs and never in my life has one of them bit me, threatened me in any way - on the contrary every dog I've had or I've been around has always been the epitome of kindness towards either me when I was a child or those around me. Heck, I used to pull their tail, ears, spanked them and done all sorts of stupid childlike stuff and none of them responded with aggressiveness.

[Biotoxic_hazard_835]

"He said: "What we know at this time is that the dog was a family pet, a two-and-a-half year old female rottweiler, which the family had owned for about six months."

They only had the dog for about six months so they did not know what kind of training or experiences around small children this particular dog had for the 2 years previous to coming to live with this family. For all they know the dog could had been previously abused or teased by small children and reacted accordingly to what he perceived as a threat. When I was little we had a female Rottweiler named Venus and she was raised by us since she was a month old and NEVER tried anything aggressive against any member of the family even though there were 5 of us and sometimes we played very rough with her. Dogs aren't born bad it is people who turn them bad either by mistreating them or teaching them the wrong stuff. I'm not saying this was the case but maybe it was. :no:

Bio

[NTUsEr Veteran]

What it comes down to is the owner. If he/she cannot handle this type of dog, then they should give it. I don't believe in banning any type of dog is right because it hurts real owners, which can handle that type of dog. I have a friend who breeds Rottweiler for a living. He has four kids, youngest is three years old, and nothing has ever gone wrong.