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Florida: Putnam County Toddler Mauled By Pet Pit Bull Mix Hospitalized With ‘Significant’ Injuries

By Rahul Srinivas
Published on: 16:18 PST, Sep 5, 2016

A 22-month-old toddler from Putnam County, Florida was hospitalized with “significant” injuries after the young child was mauled by a dog. The toddler was reportedly playing inside a home in Hawthorne, when he was attacked and mauled by the dog, later confirmed to be a pit bull mix. On Monday, the toddler reportedly underwent surgery at the Shands UF Medical Center in Gainesville where he is being cared for. The incident happened earlier in the day on Monday at around 2 p.m., local time following which emergency services were called in. Some reports said that the toddler was a 22-month-old girl and not a boy. This is, however, yet to be confirmed.

On the way to the hospital, the toddler reportedly went into respiratory arrest. He was however quickly revived and stabilized upon reaching the hospital. A Wikipedia article describes respiratory arrest as “the cessation of breathing due to failure of the lungs to function effectively.” The boy, whose identity has not been revealed remains at the hospital. However, authorities and doctors confirmed that the condition of the toddler has improved significantly while adding that he will survive the incident. Doctors, however, did add that the child would require a reconstructive surgery. In fact, at the time of drafting this article, a surgery was underway at the hospital.

Describing the incident, a police official said that the dog attack happened at the home that belonged to a friend of the toddler’s mother. Officials added that the home was located on Melrose Landing Boulevard which they described as rural property located pretty far from medical services. While authorities did not reveal how the dog attack took place, they did reveal that the toddler’s mother was asleep inside the home at the time of the incident.

After the dog attacked the toddler, the mother woke up and quickly put the injured toddler in a car. She was accompanied by a man who reportedly called up emergency services while on the way and told them about the incident. The duo drove the child down to a convenience store where they met the responding emergency workers. The man had asked the emergency workers to come to the convenience store since they had already left the home where the dog attack took place.

Meanwhile, authorities from the local animal control office have managed to confirm that the dog behind the attack was a pit bull mix. They also found that there were six other dogs inside the property apart from the pit bull. The pit bull mix, along with the other six dogs (which authorities later confirmed to be all pit bulls) were being held at another location at the time of writing this post. At this time, officials remain tight-lipped when asked about the fate of the dog that attacked the toddler. They did not reveal if the animal would be quarantined or euthanized. At this time, all the dogs have been housed at an undisclosed location outside of Putnam County.

The dog attack has also led to The Florida Department of Children and Families investigating the incident. At this time, it remains unclear if the owner of the home or the child’s mother would be charged with child endangerment or other related charges. A decision on the same would only be taken once the investigation progresses. This has been confirmed by Putnam County Capt. Gator DeLoach who added that “he is hoping for a good outcome.”

He further added the following.

“We’ve got our criminal investigations bureau here along with crime scene investigators and Putnam County code enforcement and animal control as well.”

Gator DeLoach also revealed that this was the first time that the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office has responded to an animal-related issue.

[Image via Pixabay]

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