but it's not.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8579881/


Police Release Details On Week-Old Baby's Death


WJAR-TV
COVENTRY, R.I. - Police have explained how a family dog in Coventry killed a baby girl.

Police said sometime after 8 a.m. Wednesday the infant's mother left the baby girl in the living room in a portable crib. The family's 5-year-old husky was also in the room.

Shortly afterward the mother went into the kitchen to get some juice. While in the kitchen she heard the baby cry and rushed back into the living room.

There, she found the child on the floor with a small amount of blood on her head and the dog sitting nearby. Police said the woman called her husband home from work as well as her own mother.

The family decided to take the child to the hospital to be checked out.

On the way to the hospital, they realized the baby wasn't breathing. They pulled into the nearest fire station in West Warwick.

"At that point they pulled into Station 2, and met with rescue personnel who began conducting CPR on the child in an attempt to resuscitate it," said Capt. Bryan Volpe of the Coventry Police Department.

Police said the infant's mother is too distraught to speak about what happened, but they have talked with the father.

"He's strong, he's strong for the family. He spoke to us very straightforward. He wants to give us the information as soon as he can. His wife physically can't. She's not in a good state right now," said Volpe.

An autopsy report said the infant had multiple dog bites and died of internal bleeding and injuries.

Police said no decision has been made as yet concerning the fate of the dog.

The animal will remain at the Coventry dog pound until further notice.

In my house there would be no question regarding the fate of the dog; it would be taken care of already.

*chirp chirp*

It's too bad it wasn't a pit. That way Col. Nathan Jessup and his anti-pit bull clan members could come on here an bash one of the best breed of dogs. Instead, they and the media will just pretend this never happened because only Pit Bulls do crazy things like this.

I had a Siberian Husky. He was pretty unpredictable and this doesn't suprise me.

Huskies are 'one-man-dogs' as far as my knowledge serves me. Not too good for family purposes. Beautiful dogs though

FTMF

It's sad, but not suprising that any dog could kill a one week old baby. I think it's when a dog takes out a five year old that people start to think that maybe the dog is too strong for its own good.

Pit bull owner= man with small package, but I have a manly dog

My family has raised and showed Huskies for years.... (two number one Huskies in the nation and a best of breed at Westminster)

Huskies are not "one man dogs"... not by a long shot... In the twenty-five plus years of being around Siberian Huskies we only had 2 violent ones and both of them were hand raised by my mother and therefore became VERY protective of her.

In all breeds you will have bad eggs based upon the genetics of their parents (mixed, inbred etc.) and the type of environment they are raised it....

Some breeds just have a higher percentage of being *mean* based on what they were bred for in the first place.... Siberians were bred for long lasting athleticism, not protection.

thanks. I don't know why I had that impression, it's just what i've heard through the years. I've always thought they were beautiful looking dogs but never really considered them a good family dog because of that perception. Ive always thought of having a german sheppard or a lab. in place of a huskey if i had a family.

But thanks for the insight, sheds some new light on huskies and kinda makes me want to get one now!

I think I'm going to be sick.

JJWaggie, You are right, but the Siberian Husky has tendencies that others do not. This is directly related to the fact that it and the malamute are the only two dogs that are not classified as canis familiaris, but canis lupis like the wolf. They are less removed from the instincts that wolves have than other dogs. This having been said, my husky was wonderful and majestic, but leave it alone with infants, I would not.

This sad and tragic story is proof that all Huskies need to be destroyed ASAP. I can't believe that a family would even allow a husky to live inside especially with an infant, a week old infant at that.

What surprised me the most about this story is that in no way was a pit-bull involved, either in the biting or the coercion of the biting.

so, on some level, it's like raising a wild animal? you can train it to love you and all that stuff, but there is still that innate wildness inside them that can cause them to act crazy, aka, kill babies? correct me if i'm wrong

I wouldn't go that far, but I would say that their instincts are closer to the surface than your average house poodle

the genus/species thing is what I recall; I believe there are more technical classifications. This is what I remember from discussions with a vet and my research years ago so that that with a grain of salt. I am not an expert on the subject.

According to Jack London, once a Husky has a taste for the blood that comes from ripping a throat out, he's ready to lead a dog sled.

Long but informative on the Husky/Malamute

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In either event it makes sense that the husky and malamute are domesticated wolves.

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Hybridization

The hybridization of wolves with dogs is a straightforward matter, (whether domestication took place via the wild dog or not). Crossing the hybrids would quickly lead to different types of canids and eventually dogs which would in turn lead to some of the breeds we have today. Arguably the husky was first introduced as a Eurasian dog (fully domesticated or not) and hybridized with the wolf, much as the malamute may have been. Apart from skeletal, behavioural and gestation differences, as outline by Crockford (2002) there are few significant differences between the wolf and the husky. As with the wolf the husky generally grows no under coat along the spine allowing the guard hairs to be raised with ease to show dominance and/or fear; dominance being shown by the raising of the hair at the hackles only, where fear tends to bring about the raising of guard hairs along the whole length of the spine. As with wolves and in contrast to other modern dog breeds the husky and the malamute do not have a noticeable body or mouth odor. The feint odor which is detectable at close quarters is the result of scent glands located at the back of the face which serve to identify an individual animal. The temperament of the husky is gentle and affectionate and, like the wolf, it is a tireless stamina animal able to run over extremely long distances. The husky shares its barking inhibition and strong prey drive with the wolf which reflects its wolf ancestry. Huskies talk in a strange woo-wooing fashion and emit quiet but very high pitched squeals whines and squeaks and are known to eagerly participate in howling choruses. Barking, as with the wolf, is generally reserved to illicit play. Huskies can be extremely stubborn animals and accept training with reluctance, a trait which harkens back in dilute form to the wild animal from which it was bred. If bred from pre-domesticated wolves alone huskies must have been subjected to far less hybridization than other breeds, if any, perhaps due to the fact that they were raised in such remote areas of Siberia. Conversely, if the husky was created from wild or pre-domesticate dogs alone hybridization must have been substantial. In either event it makes sense that the husky and malamute are domesticated wolves. This is not to deny that the husky was selectively bred at some point. The Chukchi have raised huskies for many generations as a working dog: Most of our dog breeds today were created only about 150 years ago from crossbreeding animals of more ancient heritage; the Siberian Husky has quite a different story. The breed was developed by the Chukchi tribes of eastern Siberia, a group of nomadic peoples indigenous to what is now northeastern Russia who, according to recent genetic studies, are the direct descendants of the people who first crossed Beringia, as is the case with Native Americans.

The husky is most likely one of the oldest breeds and is thought to have come into being some 5,000 years ago. The breed was presumably bred not to be unlike a wolf as other breeds may have been but bred selectively to be human friendly with a slightly broader and deeper chest than the wolf in order to facilitate better breathing on long runs. Their apparent physical and behavioural differences from those of the wolf may inadvertently be due to the nature of the domestication process and nothing more. Like Belyaev's foxes the tips of husky tails are white, where those of the wolf are always black. That cross hybridization took place is probable given the example of the red wolf of Florida (C. rufus) and the way in which it is quickly becoming hybridized with the coyote (C. latrans). Not only would husky/wolf hybridization have been an added bonus to the Chukchi by maintaining a healthy stock of new genes but would also have preserved much of the important survival and personality traits of its wolf ancestors. However, that the European wolf has not taken on the traits of the husky questions just how much hybridization has occurred. It may be that the offspring of female wolves by husky males already experienced reduced amounts of thyroxine and thus continually repeated the domestication process, returning to man’s side. Crockford (2002) argues that the morphological changes resulting from domestication are dominant, hence any such hybrids born in the wild will likely have been prime material for independent pre-domestication. Given the striking similarity in appearance and behavioural aspects of domesticated dogs such as the husky and malamute with wolves, and the greater similarity in appearance of other dog breeds such as the golden Labrador, with Asian wild dogs, I propose that a bilateral speciation likely took place much as Crockford argues the independent evolution of Homo sapiens in Asia (Crockford 2002).

I do know they are to smart for thier own good :-)

Like i said before... with all things there is a percentage chance, due to thier genetic makeup and what they were bred for, to be mean/wild/etc.

(from my experience)
Poodles - very very low
Huskies - low to medium
Doberman/Rottie - med
Chow - med high
Pitbull - high

I think *for the most part* it has to do with the owners more than anything... if you want a bad ass mean dog, then sometimes you suffer the consequences...

This mistake here is to leave that young of a baby with a dog of any kind. I don't care if its an effin weiner dog.

CJ, that's a difficult statement to make when we are unaware of how the house is laid out and other variables. I have two large dogs and i'm certain there have been times when my kids have been around the dogs that I couldn't get to them within 10 seconds or so. You can't imply that this is the mother's fault. That would not be fair.

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You can't imply that this is the mother's fault. That would not be fair

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I disagree, if you are talking about a two-year old or maybe even a one year old, that can scream, run, crawl, curl up in a ball or somehow protect itself, then OK. But this was a one week old. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's defensless. Leaving it subject to a dog of any size is negligent.

Harman, we don't know the details. She could have been around the corner 6 feet from the baby. All I'm saying is that you can't make a blanket statement like that without knowing all the facts. To say that you would never do anything like that is not being quite honest with ourselves and a bit self-righteous.

I'm sure there is no one in the world that feels worse about this than the mother. Sounds like she is going to need some serious counseling to get past this.

Huskies are one of the top five biters from lists I've seen. Not as bad a pit bulls which I would shoot on site if I knew I wouldn't go to jail. I had a family member killed by one this past January.

But according to jmtamu, the fact that a different kind of dog killed someone obviously means pit bulls aren't dangerous. Nice logic.

I think Husky's are the number 3 dog re: dog attack deaths. Pit Bulls are still number one by a mile.

I will look for the stats.

FTAC of 2000
I graduated, but haven't changed my name.

Stats: Husky is the #4 killer as far as dogs go.

http://ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Publications/mmwr/wk/mm4621.pdf

FTAC of 2000
I graduated, but haven't changed my name.

i'm sorry, i have to stand up for huskys. my aunt had one and she was the most wonderful and gentle dog you could have asked for. the only trait i've ever known that is stereotyped about huskys is that they tend to run away.

i also have to add that i would never, ever trust a lab around a child, unless it was a very old and super-well trained one. i know they are very kind dogs, but they are also the craziest. i work at a boarding facility and we cringe when one of the many, many labs clients we have come to stay. they're psycho. i know they would (almost) never intend to do any harm, but with the amount of jumping around and running that they do, they could hurt a kind in an instant. they don't know their own size and strength. ok, i've said my peace, carry on.

quote:

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But according to jmtamu, the fact that a different kind of dog killed someone obviously means pit bulls aren't dangerous. Nice logic.

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Okay dumbass, show me where I said that pit bulls are not dangerous. Nice reading comprehension.

I'm just referring to all the anti-pit people on here that think the breed should be extinct because some of them are raised by some terrible humans that raise them to be bad dogs.

I agree that I wouldn't even leave an infant with a lab or Golden Retriever - hell, even a poodle for that matter.

People do not understand dog behavior. Dogs are "pack animals" and have accepted people as part of their pack. The infant was a new member of the pack and the dog was establishing its pecking order with the infant as any new member of the pack would. It is unfortunate this has happened but to attack a particular breed for being a killer in this particular instant is ludicrous. As was stated earlier, never leave an infant with any dog until the dog understands its place in that pecking order.

Keep the dogs outside!

I'm not going to blame the mother, but you dont leave a child alone with a big dog. Especially one that is used to getting all the attention. We have a white shepard and a maltese. The maltese has been with us for 10 years or so, when we got the shepard, our little maltese tried to show his place in the pecking order. One snap and 10 feet later, the maltese was laying on the floor on the other side of the room. No damage was done, but had that been an infant, we're having one funeral and two burials. Big dogs imparticular want to establish there dominance in the pack, that is why they always listen to daddy/mommy, then older children. I know from experience in this one, my aunts dogs decided the best time and place for that discussion was with me right in the middle of them.
Point I'm trying to make, the head of the 'pack' (parents) need to show the dog its place by locking it out of the room the child is in. Baby gates work wonders for this. Show the dog that it is bottom of the totem pole, and you wont have these issues.

Agreed icecream, but you really think a baby gate is going to stop a dog??? Yeah right, we had those when my sister was born but it was to keep her in a room. The dogs came and went as they pleased, an easy jump for them.

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[This message has been edited by Harman Rabb Jr. (edited 7/18/2005 11:29p).]

we've never had a dog jump one. Including our shepard who could easily jump it if she wanted to. She knows that is a barrier you dont cross. Actually even if it gets knocked down she wont cross it untill we pick it up. Cant say the same for the maltese in those situations.