In Jasper, Tex., neighbors reported a toddler roaming the streets alone Tuesday afternoon. Police investigating found meth and more than a dozen snakes in the child’s home, according to the Associated Press.
The child’s mother, 28-year-old Tamara Jones, has been charged with endangerment of a child by criminal neglect as well as possession of controlled substances.
The mother had put her 2-week-old baby in a bassinet and left to use the restroom, authorities said. When she returned, she discovered that the family’s Chow mix dog had bitten the baby in the head several times. The child was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived at the family’s home in suburban Phoenix on Wednesday night, the Arizona Republic reported.
The parents were not publicly identified, but officials said that both are police officers. A manager for the county animal care and control division said that the dog was euthanized on Thursday morning. Animal experts say that even well-behaved family pets can become jealous and aggressive when a baby arrives. Click here for tips on how to get a dog accustomed to babies and children.
The parents of the Las Vegas three-year-old who was attacked by a python last month have been arrested on charges of felony child neglect, according to the Associated Press. Anthony Melendrez, 26, and Melissa Melendrez, 25, are being held in jail pending inital court apperances on Thursday.
As Minor Troubles readers will recall, the 18-foot python coiled itself around the boy, and began squeezing the breath out of him. Melendrez stabbed the snake more than a dozen times with a kitchen knife, freeing her son.
The 300-lb snake was later euthanized by animal control officers.
Photo by Tambako the Jaguar
The python may have been 18 foot long and hungry, but it was no match for an angry mother with a knife.
The family was babysitting the snake in their Las Vegas home for a friend when the critter got loose, the Las Vegas Sun reported. The reptile grabbed the woman’s 3-year-old son, wrapped around him and squeezed. Mom, who wasn’t publicly identified, took a kitchen knife and began attacking.
Mother and child were not injured. The snake wasn’t so lucky. “It was gashes in that python beyond repair, so it was euthanized humanely,” Gordon Smith of the animal shelter told the newspaper.
Though we wonder why anyone would want such a pet, pythons are legal in private homes in Las Vegas.
Photo by Tambako the Jaguar
The little girl was lying on her parents’ bed when the family’s Siberian Husky pulled her off and dragged her across the floor, authorities said.
Olivia Rozek, who was born the day after Christmas, suffered fatal puncture wounds to the head and crushing injuries from the dog’s jaws, the Chicago Tribune reported. The tragedy occurred on Monday evening in Bourbonnais, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.
Olivia was in the bed with her twin sister, who was not injured, officials said. Her mother left them briefly to do something in the kitchen, but came running back when she heard her daughter’s screams. Animal control officers have taken the dog away.
Dog experts say that even longtime family pets can have problems with a new baby. They often do not recognize the child as human or something that needs to be treated gently and can be territorial. More info about dogs and young children is here.
Doggie heroes
For a three-year-old Virginia boy lost in the freezing woods last weekend, happiness — and maybe his very survival — was a warm puppy.
Two puppies, actually. For 21 hours after Jaylynn Thorpe wandered off from his babysitter, the family pooches lent him their companionship and, more important, their body heat.
Hundreds of volunteers looked for Jaylynn, who was found about a mile from his house, nestled unharmed against a tree. His relieved mother, Sarah Ingram, told the New York Daily News, “When I first saw him, he was like, ‘Momma, I got cold. I slept in the woods last night. The puppies kept me warm.’ ”
Halifax County Sheriff Stanley Noblin told reporters: “I definitely call this a miracle.”
Photos from New York Daily News
A three-month-old Buffalo boy is recovering after undergoing emergency surgery for bites to his stomach and chest.
The brutal attack occurred when the baby was on the floor in a penned-in area on Sunday, the Lockport Journal reported. The child’s mother, whom the newspaper did not identify, was taking a shower and had a baby monitor set up. Suddenly, the family’s Staffordshire terrier tore through the plastic gate and mauled the child.
The dog, named Molson, is a pit bull, one of two the family owns. Both dogs have been taken to the animal shelter.
Karen Delise, founder of the National Canine Research Council, said that pet owners shouldn’t ever leave babies alone with dogs. “Dogs don’t really understand what infants are,” she told the Lockport Journal.
On Wednesday, a two-year-old boy in Las Vegas was killed by his family’s dog. His grandmother had been babysitting and briefly left him alone with a pit bull.
Two little boys in Las Vegas died in separate tragedies, both of which might have been preventable.
One boy’s grandmother was babysitting him at his home when the family dog mauled him on Wednesday, Fox 5 News in Las Vegas reported. The grandmother tried to rescue the two-year-old, but was injured when she tried to pry the mixed breed terrier off of his neck. Police said the fatality showed how caregivers cannot leave young children alone with dogs, even for a minute.
“This is an incident where we know our dogs, and we think we know their temperament. This shows that any dog, at any time, can revert to instinctual behavior,” police spokesman Bill Cassell told the TV news station.
On Thanksgiving Day, another two-year-old child was playing with other kids when a television fell on top on him, the TV station reported. The TV was sitting on top of a dresser and was somehow jolted, police said.
This is the second fatality this month involving a toddler and a TV set. Last week, a Florida boy was killed when a TV set and stand fell on him. His older sibling had climbed up on the furniture to turn the TV off when the accident occurred. Safety experts say that such “tip-overs” are increasingly common, and parents need to secure the television sets.
If your kids haven’t pleaded for a puppy yet, just wait. Thanks to Barack Obama’s campaign promise to his daughters, kids everywhere will have yet another argument for a doggie.
“You have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House,” Obama told Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, during his victory speech in Chicago.
Sasha and Malia will be the youngest First Kids since Amy Carter moved into the White House at age nine. Amy had a dog named Grits, given to her by one of her teachers, and a Siamese cat named Misty Malarky Ying Yang.
More info about First Kids and First Pets are on the website of the White House Historical Association. And if you do end up breaking down and getting your child a puppy, click here for tips on how to teach kids about pet ownership.
Et tu, Bambi?
Sunday morning, Seth Nolan of North Carolina suffered numerous injuries to his head and face from a deer, according to ABC News. In an interview, the four-year-old, whose right eye was still swollen from the attack, said: “He was trying to kill me,” while explaining that he’d been chasing the deer.
In an act of daddy heroism, Seth’s father, who ABC News did not identify, rescued his son by grabbing the deer by the antlers. “I know that’s stupid, but that’s the only thing I could think of to get him off my young’un,’” said the humble dad.
Based on the ABC News report, Seth has apparently recovered well enough to run, pat a cat and give media interviews about his harrowing wildlife encounter. There was no word on the fate of the deer.
Deer are involved in more human fatalities annually than any other wild animal in the United States, according to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. Of course, the vast majority of those deer-related deaths occur in traffic accidents.
Photo by James Marvin Phelps