Toddler dies in pit bull attack
Published: September 29, 2009
Updated: September 29, 2009
ORANGE — A pit bull fatally attacked a 23-month-old girl in the Mountain Track Road area Sunday night, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Mark Amos said deputies were called to the house around 6:40 p.m. Sunday to find the girl with severe wounds all over her body.
The child had wandered outside the house, Amos said, and adults at the residence found her body near where the family pet was chained.
Amos said Sgt. Jason Smith immediately began CPR and continued to try to resuscitate the girl, who was pronounced dead shortly after 9 p.m. at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
Amos declined to identify the victim, family or the home’s address. A source close to the family, however, identified the girl as Jasmine Deane, whose parents are John Deane and Kristie Fincham of Culpeper.
The source said John Deane had recently moved in to the house where the attack occurred; the house is owned by his sister, Stephanie Deane.
The family could not be reached for comment.
“Prior to the call,” Amos said in a press release, “the mother was preoccupied for a short period of time when she noticed that her child was not in the house and started to look for her. A family member then found the child outside where the dog attacked her.”
The dog, which the family had owned for 10 years, was voluntarily surrendered to animal control officers and euthanized.
Amos said it had no prior history of biting or dangerous behavior.
The investigation is ongoing.
The sheriff declined to release additional details or say whether charges would be filed.
Dog-bite statistics
Virginia Department of Health officials were not able to confirm Monday if this was the first dog mauling death in Virginia this year, but spokeswoman Maribeth Brewster said health officials were not familiar with any other recent case.
Jim Parrish, a Virginia lawyer who handles civil cases of dog attacks, said children are the most likely victims of such incidents.
He said his research has shown that many attacks are by dogs the victim knows.
“Most of the time it’s the first time the dog has ever attacked a person or other animal,” Parrish said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dogs bite 4.5 million Americans each year, and one in five dog bites need medical attention.
A report released by the Virginia Department of Health in August 2008 said 4,346 dog bite-related injuries were seen in emergency rooms and urgent care centers across the state in 2007.
Statistics for 2008 have not been released.
DogsBite.org, a public education Web site on dangerous dogs, reported 23 people in the U.S. were killed in 2008 in dog attacks. Of those, 16 were children.
In those 23 cases, 15 child and adult victims were killed by pit bulls, the DogsBite.org study showed.
In Orange County, two dogs are listed on the Virginia Dangerous Dog Registry, a state database that tracks dogs deemed dangerous by the local court. Neither of those dogs was involved in the attack on the child Sunday, and neither is a pit bull.
There are 266 dogs on the statewide dangerous dog registry, said Elaine Lidholm, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the office that oversees the registry.
If a dog kills a human being or a domesticated animal, then it is deemed vicious and is immediately euthanized, Lidholm said.
Sharon C. Fitzgerald of Media General News Service contributed to this report.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
There is no different situation jessn…The Pitt went for my sons throat and his hands were bitten defending his throat and face.If he were a small child or elderly person he would have been killed. It is obvious you have no idea what family’s of the people that have been mauled and killed by these dogs have been through. But I will stop here because I have no more to say to you except I hope you never end up in this family’s situation blinded by your own ignorance of this breed.
Poor little baby. I wish someone cared about her and not these dogs.
WHATEVER!!!!
LOL.. That must be because I own a pitt too. Hahaha
Also…referring, not “refering”..I’m, not “im”
There’a a saying about people in glass houses.
biting, not “bitting”...inbred, not “inbreeded”, because, not “becuase.
When I said uneducated I was not talking about your spelling or anything of that nature I was refering to the breed. I can give my dog a bone and remove it from him w/out him snapping or bitting or trying to kill me. Some dogs you cant, not all pitts are like that. I can see your point and im not trying to attack you or anyone else. What Im saying is the entire breed is not bad. My dog was not inbreeded, my dog is not trained to fight, I neutured my dog so im not breeding and contributing the problem of pitting a “powerful” animal in the wrong hands, I have socialized my dog to make sure he does not become aggressive towards other animals. He sleeps w/ me and my husband and sometimes he sleeps w/ my child. He is very protective and im not denying that either, but if you have no intentions of hurting him or his family then he will not hurt you. I have seen other animals that are other breeds that i would not approach. The only point im trying to prove is that THE ENTIRE BREED IS NOT BAD! In your previous comment you were speaking about your child being bitten all over his hands/arms/legs and he went for your sons throat, was this a different situation, becuase now im confused (hmm that must be becuase I have a pitt, Haha) Any animal is capable of attacking, any animal is capable of killing.
terra…You are just wasting your time and energy on someone who is of no consequence. jessns is one of those who loves to disagree, no matter the subject. She can only base her ideas on what she considers personal experience and has only a very narrow view of everything. There are many posters to these forums who are the same way and never consider anyone else’s point of view. So my advice (for whatever it is worth) is just consider the source and ignore a worthless and very judgmental comment.
Jessn once again you are wrong. And might I also add that you keep trying to make me look uneducated by my typing and spelling skills, which I admit are not fantastic but why don’t you go back and read your stuff. You have alot of mistakes yourself and cuz is not a word. You are wrong also about me hating the breed only because my son was attacked by a Pitt. It is not only MY son that was attacked but countless others. My son was bitten by our Rottie when he was 5 years old. I do not hate Rottweiler’s at all. He tried to take a bone out of it’s mouth and she gave him a “it’s mine” and then ran off. He had a small puncture wound on his thumb that did not need stitches. The dog was placed in a childless single home immediately because I was not willing to take that chance again. I am much older and wiser now and realize even though we had her for 6 years with no aggression that a child around any potentially dangerous dog is not a good idea. But what I do know for a fact is if that would have been a Pitt Bull he would have been seriously injured or dead. Your reasoning again about mentally ill people to a dogs natural instinct shows how uneducated you really are. These people are sick in the head, there is no instinct in a human to do such horrible acts but a mental sickness that causes this. You really should get a better understanding of human verses animal. This only makes you look like a idiot when you are continuously judging and joking of others education verses your own. You have done a wonderful job at proving my point. Thank you
Thank you, Sandalwood. This word has become part of the everyday vocabulary and you are right. It is used by those who cannot express themselves any other way. NO MANNERS OR UPBRINGING!!!!!
Advertisement