An 11-month-old baby has died after being attacked by his family’s Belgian shepherd in front his horrified parents who desperately tried to save the child.
The baby boy was savaged by one of the family’s three dogs in Questembert, in Morbihan, France, while watching TV with his mother and father on Sunday afternoon, France 3 reports.
The local fire brigade rushed to the scene around 3.30pm and tried to save the baby, but the 11-month-old died of the serious injuries inflicted by the Belgian Malinois shepherd.
‘The emergency services arrived quickly and the operations to keep the child alive lasted an hour and a half,’ Boris Lemaire, the mayor of Questembert, told Le Telegramme.
The father had tried to save his son and was also bitten by the family dog, according to De Telegraaf.
The baby’s parents were reportedly in a state of shock and were both taken to hospital for treatment.
It is not clear why the dog attacked the baby.
A judicial inquiry into the exact circumstances of the baby’s death has been opened.
An 11-month-old baby has been killed by a Belgian shepherd as its parents tried to protect the child (file image of a Belgian shepherd)
The boy’s death comes after seven-month-old Elle Doherty was mauled to death by her family’s pet dog after she is thought to have ‘leant’ on the dog while crawling on the living room floor, an inquest heard in November.
Elle was bitten to the rear of her head by Belgian Malinois Zeus in an attack which ‘transpired within a second or less’ and was captured on an indoor security camera.
A coroner heard the 35kg (4st 12oz) dog had never previously displayed any aggression but had required sessions with a behaviourist two years earlier.
The expert had been contacted over the dog’s behaviour again in the run-up to the tragedy, the court heard.
The inquest was shown a series of stills from the security camera in the living room of the family home in Coventry, West Midlands, which showed Elle’s parents Natasha and Sean Doherty sat on a sofa watching television as the infant sat on the floor looking out of the patio window.
Mrs Doherty, 39, was then shown walking out to the kitchen, followed by the dog, before returning with a carrier bag which the dog appeared ‘fixated with’.
As Elle moved towards the dog the animal showed no interest in the baby and continued to look at the red bag, before the next CCTV still was displayed showing Mrs Doherty leaning over the dog as her husband, Sean, 37, leapt to his feet.
Mr Doherty then dragged the dog to the kitchen as his wife cradled their bloodied child.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
