A 9-month-old baby is dead and a 49-year-old woman is injured after a family dog attacked them, authorities said.
Waterloo Police Department Capt. Jason Feaker said that the canine bit the victims inside their Iowa home on Thursday, before police received a call about the incident around 7:22 a.m. local time.
The woman’s injuries are considered serious, according to police. She was taken to Allen Hospital before she was later flown to the University of Iowa Hospital.
The baby, meanwhile, was declared dead at the scene.
The dog was a boxer/hound mix that was taken by animal control and put down after the attack, local outlet KWWL reported.
The woman was reportedly the infant’s grandmother, according to ABC News. She was injured while trying to intervene when the family pet attacked.
Feaker said the dog was sent to Iowa State University for further testing after being euthanized, per the outlet.
“No names are being released pending notification of family members,” he added in a release. “This is an ongoing investigation.”
The Waterloo Police Department did not
The Iowa incident follows several other deadly dog attacks that occurred this year.
Back in March, 3-year-old Xavier Carr’s family was dog-sitting a Belgian Malinois when they say the little boy’s arm was almost ripped off, per WKRC-TV.
Father Joshua Carr said at the time that he rushed to his son’s side when he was “screaming at the top of his lungs,” and saw “a huge puddle of blood underneath of him.”
“As cliché as it sounds, I immediately thought of Grey’s Anatomy, and I took my belt off that I was wearing and wrapped it around his arm to stop the bleeding as I was calling 911,” he said.
As WKRC-TV reported, doctors credited the father’s quick action with saving his son’s life after the young boy underwent surgery to reconnect his arm. “It’s going to be limited, but he’s got a high chance of being able to use that [arm] again, partially because he was [attacked] at such a young age,” Carr said.
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Previously, in February, six-year-old Lily Norton underwent a 12-hour surgery and got over 1,000 stitches after a dog attacked her and bit her face. A GoFundMe campaign created on her behalf explained that the stitches were below her eyes to her chin, following the attack at a friend’s house.
“They were going to play cards at the table, so she sat down at the table, the friend went and got the cards, and then as soon as the friend walked back in the room, she screamed to her mom because the dog had Lily in her mouth,” the girl’s mother, Dorothy Norton, told News Center Maine.
“And she doesn’t hate all dogs, at least; that’s what she told me. She just doesn’t want to see that one again,” she continued.