The 44kg pit bull breed cross was impounded after biting a newborn child to death in San Diego.
© County of San DiegoThe 44kg pit bull breed cross was impounded after biting a newborn child to death in San Diego.
A pit bull terrier crossbreed dog lying in bed with a San Diego couple bit and killed their three-day-old son when it was startled awake.

The parents had been watching television at the time with their newborn and the 44kg (97lb) American Staffordshire terrier-Great Dane mix was lying with them, said Sergeant Tu Nguyen of the San Diego police child abuse unit.

"The mum coughed unexpectedly and it startled the dog, which bit the baby, causing traumatic injury," said Nguyen, whose unit investigates the death of any child.

"The parents were able to separate the dog from the baby and they rushed him to the hospital but they were not able to save him."

Nguyen declined to say where the baby was injured and said police were waiting for the medical examiner's report on the exact cause of death.


The dog was taken into custody by San Diego county animal services, officials said. Any dog that bites a person is placed in quarantine by animal control, said Dan DeSousa, deputy director of the agency.

DeSousa said the family could direct animal control to euthanise the dog or they could claim the dog at the end of a 10-day quarantine, but the agency had not yet received any instructions.

The American Staffordshire is one of a number of pit-bull dog breeds recognised as dangerous and subject to various breeding and ownership restrictions in different parts of the world.

The Texas-based charity DogsBite.org lists three previous killings of children by pit bulls in the US in 2016, and a dozen people killed in 2015. The group campaigns against dangerous dog breeds and on behalf of victims of attacks.