A three-month-old child is dead in Alabama after being attacked by a wolf hybrid kept as a pet by the baby's family, officials said Friday.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office was summoned to residence in Chelsea, Alabama just before 1 p.m. local time on Thursday, the office said in a news release. The call reported an animal attack involving an infant. Deputies, firefighters and animal control officers responded to the scene.
CBS News affiliate WIAT reported that emergency personnel were able to get the three-month-old baby away from the animal and transport the child to Grandview Medical Center, an area hospital.
The child was pronounced dead at the hospital due to injuries believed to have been caused by the animal, the sheriff's office said.
Other children were home at the time of the incident, Chelsea Mayor Tony Picklesimer told WIAT.
"It's been confirmed that one of our children here in Chelsea was killed by an exotic family pet and succumbed to their injuries yesterday afternoon after being taken to the hospital by Chelsea Fire & Rescue," Picklesimer said in a statement shared on social media. "We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate and tragic event. We lift up the family and all those affected with our deepest prayers and thoughts."
The animal was euthanized at the scene by an area veterinarian, the sheriff's office said. Its remains have been transported to the Alabama State Diagnostics Laboratory for "further examination and investigation."
Picklesimer said the case is being investigated by the sheriff's office and the Alabama Department of Human Resources, which works to protect "children and vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect or exploitation," according to its website.
No other details about the case are available at this time, the mayor said.
Chelsea is about 20 miles southeast of Birmingham.
A wolf hybrid is a term used to descirbe the offspring resulting from the mating between a wolf and a domestic dog, according to the International Wolf Center.
A similar attack occurred in Virginia in 2018, when a wolf-dog hybrid mauled an eight-day-old baby lying in a bassinet. The child died from their injuries, and the animal, which was being kept as a pet, was euthanized.
nedlud okay Ned agreed...maybe even just a loose association can be permitted here? Not taking what you post in reply as a personal attack in any way. Just sharing ideas... Nice of you to reply. Thank you.
The parents are at fault here. They allowed the children to be around the animal. Children do stupid things and sometimes downright bad things. I canโt even allow my friends to visit with their children because their 3 and 5 year olds torment my dogs. I told them not to do it and leave them alone but they kept pulling the tail, pulling the ears, and hitting them in the face. And you know if my dogs bit them, the dog and I would get blamed. Which is possibly what that 3 year old did. Darwin Award? Maybe.
our longtime family dog died and my wife wanted to help out an acquaintance by taking his sisters husky. the sister had decided she did not want to care for the dog after it outgrew it's cuteness. so the dog was left in mom's care in her trailer. it was tearing up the floor and destroying the doors while mom was at work. we got the dog and knew nothing of husky behavior. we just thought it was like any other nice dog breed. first thing we found out was that you can't have a husky without a leash or enclosure unless it is one of the few that is really trained well as they will bolt. as we started to read while trying to train it is that they don't train like other dogs. they generally bond with the first human that is their caretaker as a puppy and tend not to bond or listen to anyone else after that point. the other thing we discovered is that they are near wild themselves. they never made the jump to domesticated dogs because the breed was developed only recently in their timeline. they are prone to aggressive behavior. insurance companies will raise your rates if you have one at your residence because of lawsuits stemming from this. the dog had a very nice disposition most of the time and we really enjoyed that part of her. but she still had wolf. and when she became that way, we had to either lock her in the room that she lost it in or keep her tied up outside until she came back to earth. i mean scary, scary shit. like the stuff nightmares are made of. snarling, spitting , barking if you even came within a few feet of her. even to feed her. she loved kids and other people and that made us nervous. one day a friend of the wife's came over with a kid in tow and the dog wanted to say hello but the kid was obviously scared and i was trying to keep it at a safe distance. she bit me really bad for keeping her away from the kid. that was it. the family who had the dog previous told us to let them know if it didn't work out to give them a call. they took the dog back and eventually found a husky rescue farm in colorado that takes in these dogs.
moral of the story....read about the breed BEFORE you get one.
Why didn't someone beat the animal off , they easily could have stopped playing their banjo long enough to accomplish this!
Sorry for the sarcasm......even a half-wit 3 year old knows enough to safe guard infants from......ummmmm electrical outlets, ovens, chainsaws, unpredictable hybrid pets, unpredictable pit bulls, unpredictable drunken adults.......my fingers will go numb from typing!
Quite obviously, every single wolf and wolf 'hybrid' must be destroyed, in order to protect our youth in Asia. Our future!
Can you imagine what the world will be like if we do not proceed with maximum vengeance?
Kill anything and everything that looks like a wolf.
Kill, kill, kill!
FUCKING, FUCKING, FUCKING DUH.
(maximum sarcasm)
ned,
OUT