Pit Bulls Maul 3-Year-Old At Uncle's Home, Dogs Euthanized

Three pit bulls attacked a three-year-old boy at his uncle's house in Norphlet, Arkansas, last month. The child suffered serious injuries to his abdomen and head and is now recovering, local media reports said Wednesday.

An incident report by the Union County Sheriff’s Office stated that the boy was at his aunt and uncle’s home on June 27 when their pet pit bulls attacked the boy. The unprovoked attack took place when the child was in their living room lying on the couch while the dogs were resting nearby. When the boy got up, the pit bulls came close to him and became aggressive. Suddenly, they charged at the boy and began biting him.

The report added that one dog was biting the child on his right side, the other was biting him on the left side while the third took its teeth to the child’s head. The uncle tried to prevent the attacks by shielding the child with his body.

“We have a lot of bites in the county,” officer Charles Hartsell said, according to local media. “We’ve had two or three since then but most are not as severe as this.”

The family reportedly alerted authorities who arrived at the scene and transported the victim to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Local media said police cited the dogs to be vicious and dangerous. They were put down a day after the attack.

In another incident, a three-year-old boy was attacked by three neighborhood dogs in West Sterlington. Walter James Fuller Jr. was airlifted to the Shreveport hospital after being found near a shed next to his residence. Police said that when the boy was found, his clothes were ripped off and he had multiple bites on his body.

Hartsell said in an interview that children getting attacked by dogs was more common than any other age group.

“The younger you are, the shorter you are and the taller the dog is it’s more likely to get in your face,” he said, advising parents to supervise their kids at all times and urging dog owners to train their canines to socialize with persons outside of the home.

“Socializing at a young age all the way up is detrimental,” officer Hartsell said.

If a child or adult is getting attacked, he said, curl up into a ball and cover the hand over the face to minimize severe injury. If you are carrying any object like a backpack, coat or blanket put that out toward the dogs to let them attack the object. These conversations with any child no matter the age is important, he added.