Toddler killed by San Bernardino family's pit bull

Why didn't the other dog protect the boy? Shouldn't she have disciplined the younger dog when he attacked the boy? I just don't see the evidence that pit bulls make good pets. Why do people love them so much? I believe that the precise reason that people like these dogs is their reputation for fierceness and for having powerful jaws that won't let go. People think the dogs will protect them. The evidence is mounting, however, that the dogs are prone to attacking children.

Toddler killed by San Bernardino family's pit bull
May 28, 2010
By LAURIE LUCAS and RICHARD BROOKS
The Press-Enterprise

A family pet has killed a 2-year-old San Bernardino boy whose parents briefly left him alone as he rode his tricycle in their enclosed side yard.

Nathan Aguirre died Friday at Loma Linda University Medical Center from severe head and neck injuries after one of the family's two pit bulls attacked him the night before, said Sgt. Gary Robertson.

Nathan was the second toddler to die in the last four months in San Bernardino County from a pit bull attack. In January, 3-year-old Omar Martinez died from injuries from being mauled by his family's pit bull at his Apple Valley home, about 40 miles north of San Bernardino.

In February, a pack of five dogs escaped from their yard in Fontana, attacking three children who were walking by. Five-year-old Destiny Colon had a punctured lung and was put on life support for a while; 6-year-old Hector Perez needed 235 stitches in his legs; and 7-year-old Princess Colon needed 18In April, in neighboring Riverside County, a 6-month-old boy was mauled in his carrier by two dogs at the home of a family friend. The pit bull and pit bull mix tore the infant's diaper off and bit off his testicles...

The blinds were drawn Friday and no one answered the door at Nathan's house. Jim Keller said the family was with relatives. The driveway, smeared with dried blood where the mauling occurred, painted the grim story. A Red Flyer wagon and Little Tikes tricycle languished a few feet away. Nearby lay a torn, blood-stained T-shirt that said: "You can move a mountain. You can't budge a dog."

Pasted in a front window is a sticker for Atomic Dog, a magazine dedicated to the "bully breed" -- pit bulls. Only one of the dogs attacked Nathan, but city animal control has impounded both for 10-day quarantine before deciding their fates, Robertson said.

At the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter at Chandler Way, the pit bulls, housed in kennel 9, wagged their tails and barked occasionally as visitors peered into their cage. Police said the family owned the attacker for three months -- the 1½-year-old black male. The older and bigger dog, a blue female, wasn't involved, Robertson said...