Infant boy bitten to death by family’s wolf-dog pet | US News

A three-month-old boy was fatally bitten by his family’s wolf-dog hybrid pet.

The boy was attacked at his home in Chelsea, Alabama, on Thursday afternoon, according to Shelby County Coroner Lina Evans.

He was still alive when paramedics arrived at the home shortly before 1pm. The infant was rushed to Grandview Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

‘It appears that the wolf or wolf-dog – they kept it as a, quote, ‘pet’ – picked up the child that was down on the floor and started playing with it, and unfortunately killed the baby,’ Evans told the New York Post.

The family and investigators confirmed that the dog had wolf lineage.

‘It’s unthinkable,’ Mayor Tony Picklesimer told AL.com.

‘How do you ever get over that?’

The boy’s wounds are ‘suspected to have been caused by the animal’, said the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office on Friday.

‘The animal is described as a wolf-hybrid and was reportedly kept as a pet by the family of the infant,’ stated the sheriff’s office. ‘The animal was euthanized at the scene by an area vet, at the request of law enforcement.’

A veterinarian euthanized the wolf-dog at the scene and took it to the Alabama State Diagnostics Laboratory in Auburn to be examined.

Other children were at the home on Highway 440 in between new and old Highway 280 at the time of the attack. No one else was injured.

There is no threat to the public, the sheriff’s office said.

‘We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate and tragic event and lift up the family and all those affected with our deepest prayers and thoughts,’ said Picklesimer.

The sheriff’s office said it is conducting a criminal investigation into the incident.

Chelsea is about 20 miles southeast of Birmingham.

The infant’s death comes just over a month after a four-year-old boy was mauled to death by one or two pit bulls while playing in his backyard in west Detroit.

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