15-Month-Old Killed by Family's Pit Bull
www.clarionledger.com
June 20, 2006, CONEHATTA, MISSISSIPPI— A few months ago, Newton County resident Pat May saw the pit bull that killed 15-month-old Javlyin Anderson running loose in her pasture. The dog had freed itself from the tree where the girl's parents kept it chained.
May, who runs a home-based dog grooming business, went inside to get a gun to shoot the dog. When she came back, it was gone.
"I have wished a million times I had gotten back in time to have shot it," May said, looking across her pasture toward the Anderson's mobile home. "It's been a sad week around here."
Javlyin was buried Monday.
Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight said she was pronounced dead Thursday at Laird Hospital in Union after the attack by one of the family's two pit bulls. The child was playing in front of the family's home in Conehatta.
Family members had no comment Monday about the attack, but communities throughout the nation, including Jackson, are debating ordinances restricting or outlawing certain breeds of dogs.
Newton County Coroner Danny Shoemaker said such a rule has been "the least of the worries" in the rural, sparsely populated county 60 miles east of Jackson.
"It's fixing to be pushed up," he said.
Shoemaker said an initial examination indicates Javlyin died from blood loss.
Knight said an investigation into her death is not complete, but it appears the girl was being supervised by two teenage siblings. The dog was chained at the time of the attack, he said. Knight said the dog has been destroyed.
The sheriff said he has not had problems with pit bulls attacking people, but he said be thinks they are inappropriate pets for families with small children.
"Pit bulls, in my opinion, are the worst breed you can have," he said. "They are so aggressive. It's bred into them."
May said the Andersons have been good neighbors, but she said she was worried about their dogs. May has several dogs, including two Weimaraners.
"I wouldn't own one, especially because I've got grandchildren," she said. "I don't blame them. They just didn't think about the dangers."
A report prepared by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that a third of all fatal dog attacks are committed by pit bull-type breeds. Most of the victims are children, according to the CDC study, which analyzed dog bites over a 20-year period.
