Dog Kills Baby

By Elton Camp Those who are regular readers of the material that I post may well be aware of my longstanding opposition to allowing dogs inside ones house. Mostly, my arguments have been based on cleanliness, threats to human health and property damage done by these animals. By far the meanest reviews Ive gotten are from dog lovers who dont want to accord me the right to hold views different from their own. There have been deeply disturbing incidents of people being attacked or even killed by individual dogs or groups of dogs. In some instances, dog owners have been sent to prison for failing to control animals they knew to be vicious. Inside dogs have caused elderly people to fall and suffer injuries from which they never recover. An elderly woman right here where we lived died as a direct result of injuries she received when tripped by one of her dogs. How tragic! Some folks who pretend to be Christians have taken the viewpoint that dogs go to heaven when they die. What a blasphemy that is! On of the pillars of the Christian religion is that the ONLY way to heaven is through faith in Jesus as the Christ and then to live a life consistent with his teachings. Get realis a dog able to do anything like that? Did Jesus die a painful death on behalf of dogs! What a disgusting belief that is, yet some dog lovers hold that dogs go to heaven. When a dog dies, it is gone forever and returns to the dust. If you claim to be a Christian and hold a false belief like this, please think what it is you are saying! Now, dont get the wrong idea. I am no hater of dogs. I had dogs as a child and loved them as most youngsters do. I could imagine having a dog again if I should come to live in a rural area where the animal could be kept outside and be relatively safe from being killed in traffic. But to speak of adopting a dog as if it were a child revolts me. Still, adults should be allowed to do as they please as long as they are the only ones harmed by excessive devotion to canines. This isnt a question of law, but of morality and respect for the rights of others. I strongly object to visitors to our home bringing along their dogs and even expecting them to be allowed indoors when they know how full well how we feel about that. It is also disturbing to see cases where innocent children are forced to share quarters with dogs. But they love the dog and want it with them, the parent may say. Perhaps so, but part of being a parent is to set limits when the health and safety of children are involved. Now we have a case in the news where a dog dismembered and killed a baby. It wasnt a known vicious breed such as Pit Bull, but a dog ordinarily considered safe around children. A dog is an animal and should never be permitted to share space with a baby. This is a tragic case and I dont doubt that the parents never dreamed that such a thing would happen. I am not writing this to add to their grief, but as an admonition to others to beware

of dogs kept inside (and even outside there is still danger, though a lesser one). The story as posed on the Internet (some names removed), follows.
(Taken from media reports) A 2-month-old child was killed and dismembered by a dog in his family's South Carolina home Friday as his father slept, authorities said. [The childs] mother called 911 when she got home at about 11 a.m. and discovered the boy's leg was severed by a retriever mix the family had taken into the home a few weeks earlier, County deputies said. The boy died at the hospital a short time later, Coroner Chris Nisbet said in a news release. Nisbet said the boy was bitten and dismembered, but he refused to answer additional questions about the infant's injuries. He said he hopes an autopsy scheduled for Saturday will determine if the boy was dead before the dog dismembered him. Today is one of the saddest days in my 20+ years of being in the County Coroner's Office as I report to all of you one of the worst deaths I have ever handled, Nisbet wrote in his e-mail to the media, which had the subject line Today's Nightmare. When the infant was injured, the mother was taking the family's 7-year-old child to the doctor. The father was sleeping in a bedroom with a 3-year-old child, while the baby was in a baby swing outside that room, County Sheriff L.C. Knight said. Investigators are still trying to sort out how the attack unfolded. The father was being questioned by deputies Friday afternoon, Knight said. It's terrible. I don't want to go into details about exactly what happened because the investigation is still ongoing, Knight said. It was a real bad scene. The two other children in the home have been taken into protective custody, Knight said. Prosecutors are also following the case and the sheriff expects all the investigators will meet next week to discuss if any charges should be filed. The sheriff said that the family apparently had two dogs, one they had for some time and the dog that attacked the child which they adopted in recent days. The dog that mauled the child was in a holding pen behind the sheriff's office late Friday. A woman answering a number listed for the home refused to talk about what happened and told a reporter to not call her back.

No one answered the door at the white mobile home in a wooded area with a cluster of similar homes about 30 miles northwest of a city on Friday evening. The home had a small doghouse and a small wooden porch in front. A neighbor said she did not really know the family, who had to drive past her house on the driveway to their home set back from the road. I only saw them getting in and out of their car but they were very loving to their children, she said. She said the family's second dog was a yellow Lab and she had never seen the smaller dog that had been taken away by deputies.

This is the dog that killed the baby. Please beware of dogs in the house!