The three-day-old baby had just come home from the hospital when the family dog dragged him into the woods. The child, who was later found by his father, suffered cuts and puncture wounds and was in intensive care at a University of Kentucky hospital, authorities said.
The newborn was in his crib on Monday when the Native American Indian dog took the baby into its mouth, “like a toy or small pup,” a sheriff’s deputy told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “The dog had a history of grabbing things off counters and hiding things,” said Deputy Sheriff Anthony Purcell.
Animal control officers took the dog from the the Nicholasville, Ky., home. Even the most well behaved dog may not recognize a new baby as a human and treat it gently. Click here for tips on how to introduce your pets to the newcomer.
A 12-foot python escaped from its aquarium and killed a 2-year-old girl on Wednesday morning in her central Florida home. Shaunia Hare died in her bedroom, suffering strangulation as well as bite marks on her head, police told the Associated Press.
The boyfriend of Shaunia’s mother owned the Burmese python, but did not have a legal permit for the animal, police said. Charles Jason Darnell, 32, discovered the snake was missing, and then found the snake on the Shaunia.
The Humane Society told the AP that Shaunia is at least the 12th person to be killed in the U.S. by pet pythons since 1980. Five of those deaths were children. Last year, the parents of a 3-year-old boy in Las Vegas were charged with felony child neglect after their child was attacked by their pet python. The boy survived after the mother stabbed the snake with a kitchen knife.
Photo by Tambako the Jaguar
Maureen Lee and her 3-year-old daughter, Maya, were walking on a trail near their home in British Columbia, Canada, when the cougar appeared in front of them. The 88-pound animal pushed little Maya down and got on top her.
Lee didn’t have time to feel scared. She was angry, and her maternal instincts took over. She says she pushed the cougar off her little girl, picked up the child and ran, the Vancouver Sun reported. She didn’t stop running until she got to a neighbor’s house. Maya suffered cuts to her head and left arm and required stitches.
Later on Tuesday night, conservation officers scoured the trail and found the cougar suspected in the attack. The animal was then killed. Experts say that cougars are usually elusive and avoid people.
Lee says that her daughter seems to have recovered from the attack, and they won’t let the incident deter them from enjoying nature. “I don’t want her to be afraid of the forest,” Lee says. “I don’t want her to be afraid of picking berries. I want her to understand that this was a unique situation.”
Photo by Digital Art 2
Like most little kids, four-year-old Daniel Blair thought he was being helpful. His week-old cocker spaniel was muddy after playing in the garden, and the British boy thought the puppy needed a bath. So he put it in the toilet and flushed, KTLA TV News reported.
Plumbers found the puppy lying upside down in a pipe about 20 yards away from their house. It took four hours to free the dog, which has now been named Dyno after the plumbing company that rescued it. Dyno is now fine, and hopefully, Daniel has learned a valuable lesson. Watch a video of the rescue here.
Melissa Miller’s son wandered off into his backyard and was mauled to death by the family’s pit bull. Now, the Texas mom being charged in the boy’s death. A grand jury on Wednesday returned an indictment that would charge Miller, 24, of criminally negligent homicide and injury to a child, both felonies.
Miller’s attorney said the charges were unfair to the “young, caring mother.” “It is unfortunate that the district attorney would not recognize that sometimes horrible accidents happen without there necessarily having been a crime committed,” attorney Matt Jones told the Austin American-Statesman.
According to Jones, the toddler was in his bed on March 26 when Miller woke up to help her 6-year-old daughter get ready for school. Miller apparently went back to bed afterwards. When she woke up at noon, she couldn’t find the boy and began searching for him.
Tyson’s body was found in the backyard around 12:30 p.m., where the family dog was chained. The 28-month-old child had suffered severe head and neck bites. The dog has since been euthanized.
It’s the power of puppy love. Three-year-old Joshua Childers managed to survive hypothermia during a 52-hour ordeal in the woods thanks to his family’s dog. The fluffy Great Pyrenees snuggled up to the boy at night and kept him warm, doctors told KSPR TV News. The 120-pound dog became a nice blanket for the 35-pound child.
As Minor Troubles posted earlier, the Missouri toddler had wandered away from his home last Monday and was found three days later, covered with tick and wearing only a T-shirt. He had left home while his mom was talking on the phone. After a hospital stay in which Joshua kept telling docs about his dog, he was released this weekend, just in time for Mother’s Day.
Expectant moms take heart: Whatever complications your pregnancies involve, they’re highly unlikely to be as wild as what Ashley Swendson, 26, experienced on a hiking trail near Colorado Springs on Thursday morning.
Swendson, who is five months along, encountered a black bear, who followed about 10 feet behind her on the trail. She thought the animal was approaching her with more curiosity than malice, but started running just in case, according to the Associated Press.
After scrambling up an embankment to escape, Swendson was hit by a slow-moving car. She was unhurt, but taken to the hospital for a check-up.
Unfortunately, the bear did not fare so well. After it was captured, and Swendson identified it, the bear was euthanized. The expectant mother feels badly that the bear hard to die; she plans to give her child — whether its a boy or a girl — the middle name “bear” in the critter’s honor. And won’t she have a tale to tell when the tyke asks where that name came from?
The 11-month-old boy was mauled to death inside his Detroit area home on Wednesday afternoon. The boy’s father apparently shot the famiy’s pit bull with a handgun, and the dog was dead by the time officers arrived. One neighbor said that the child’s mother was out on the porch, screaming that the dog had the baby by the head.
Friends told the Detroit Free Press that the baby was the family’s “miracle child.” The couple had been told they were unable to have children, but then the mother got pregnant. Police did not release the names of the parents or child.
A Texas grandmother was injured, and her 7-month-old grandson, Izaiah Gregory Cox, died on Tuesday after the grandmother’s two pit bulls attacked.
The grandmother, whose name was not released, went to the kitchen to fix a bottle for the baby, and returned to find the two dogs biting the child, according to the Associated Press. Although the San Antonio grandma attempted to rescue Izaiah by slashing the dogs with a knife, it was too late.
Police later shot and killed both dogs.
Pollywanna be a hero?
It’s not every parrot that can brag to his feathered friends that he’s helped saved a human life.
This improbable scenario actually happened in Denver, and the valiant pet bird now has an “Animal Lifesaver Award” from the Red Cross to prove it, according to the Associated Press. The really wild kicker: the bird didn’t even live with the child. Yes, Willie was just babysitting.
Here’s how the heroics went down: One morning in November, Willie and his owner, Megan Howard, were taking care of the toddler during breakfast. While Howard went to the bathroom, the child started to choke on her food. Willie squawked: “Mama, baby,” over and over to sound the alarm.
While Howard saved the child by performing the Heimlich maneuver, she called Willie “the real hero.” The quick-thinking bird received his award at a “Breakfast of Champions” Red Cross event in Denver on Friday, which was attended by luminaries that included the state’s governor and the city’s mayor.
But did anyone at the event think to offer Willie a cracker?