A two-year-old boy in Austin, Texas was attacked by a pit bull, resulting in an injury to his stomach.
Chante Wright-Haywood experienced a parent’s worst nightmare when, during Thanksgiving week, an aggressive pit bull unexpectedly attacked her son, CJ, in their front yard.
The incident occurred as Wright-Haywood prepared to take the young boy to daycare. Unaware of the lurking danger, she noticed what she initially thought was another child on the property. It quickly became apparent that the figure was an unleashed pit bull, which attacked her son.
The frightening episode was captured by their doorbell security camera, showcasing the mother’s desperate attempts to protect her son by fighting off the dog.
Despite her attempt to shield the boy from the dog, he sustained a bite to his stomach. The mother and her children fled the dangerous situation with the dog still in pursuit. Even though they made it safely into the house, the aggressive pit bull continued the assault by clawing at and eventually breaking off the front door’s hinges in its relentless attempt to enter the house.
Wright-Haywood and her two children exerted their full body weight against the door to prevent the dog from breaking in. Their ordeal ended when Animal Control arrived and captured the dog.
Wright-Haywood said there have been many issues in the area with unleashed and abandoned dogs. Dog attacks have been increasing in Austin every year since 2007.
In a separate incident earlier this month, in Fort Worth, Texas, a two-year-old girl, McKenna Martin, suffered severe facial injuries from a pit bull attack while under the care of family friends.
The attack, which occurred at the family friends’ home, left McKenna with significant trauma, including crushed facial bones and detached tissues. The dog had previously shown aggressive behavior, attacking someone two months prior to this incident.
McKenna was in the custody of family friends after her parents, struggling with a drug addiction relapse, temporarily relinquished custody. Her parents had alerted Child Protective Services about the aggressive dog in the home before the attack.
Following the incident, McKenna underwent extensive surgery at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth to repair damage to her lips, nostrils, and left tear duct, along with nerve damage to her leg.
The increasing frequency of such attacks calls for heightened vigilance and precautionary measures to ensure the safety of communities.
Pit bulls are involved in more reported dog attacks than any other breed, accounting for 22.5% of dog bite incidents according to one study. Pit bulls are also responsible for the majority (28%) of fatal dog attacks between 1979 and 1998 according to the CDC. Children between the ages of 1-4 have the highest risk of death from dog attacks, accounting for 29.4% of fatalities. Unneutered male dogs are also more likely (2.6 times) to bite than neutered dogs.
