A heart-wrenching episode unfolded in Iowa when a family’s pet dog attacked and killed a nine-month-old baby and critically injured the child’s 49-year-old grandmother in their own home.
Early on Thursday morning, May 4, at around 7:20 am, officers from the Waterloo Police Department responded to the violent episode involving the baby and the grandmother. The woman, who was injured while trying to shield the baby, was rushed to Allen Hospital before being transferred to the University of Iowa Hospital for further medical care.
The baby, unfortunately, was declared dead at the scene. Following the tragic incident, the dog was put down by animal control officers and later taken to Iowa State University for a more detailed examination. Police Captain Jason Feaker confirmed the investigation is still ongoing, and the names of the victims have yet to be released.
Sadly, this deadly dog attack isn’t the only recent one. Earlier in March, a three-year-old boy named Xavier Carr suffered life-threatening injuries when a Belgian Malinois dog attacked him while his family was looking after the dog. The child’s arm was almost completely severed, leading his father, Joshua Carr, to dial 911 and use his belt as a makeshift tourniquet to halt the bleeding. The father’s quick thinking was later hailed by doctors as instrumental in saving his son’s life after the arm was reattached surgically.
In another incident in February, a six-year-old girl named Lily Norton had her face bitten by a dog, leading to a 12-hour surgery and over a thousand stitches. The incident happened at a friend’s house while the kids were playing cards.
April also witnessed two grave dog attacks in Minnesota. On April 7, a child was attacked by a pit bull in a park in Brooklyn, and about a week later, a 22-year-old man was fatally mauled by four dogs in a Brooklyn Center home while he was dog-sitting for a relative.
