Toddler Killed in Fatal Dog Bite
The Christmas holiday seems to have been a particularly painful time for a number of families dealing with serious dog bite attacks in New Jersey and around the country.
In Florida just a few days before Christmas, a 20-month-old boy was killed in an attack involving a Rottweiler. The boy, Dallas Walter, was at a birthday party in Pasco County. According to the Pasco County Sheriff’s office, the boy had dropped a cookie, and was just bending to pick it up when the Rottweiler attacked him.
The dog, which was not registered or even neutered, belonged to a distant relative. According to the dog’s owner, they just received the dog two months ago through a newspaper ad, and have no idea whether the dog has behavioral problems. Pasco County officials are now trying to get in touch with the dog’s original owner. The dog has since been euthanized.
According to Dallas’s father, the dog was meant to be chained in the backyard, but seemed to have gotten loose. Not surprisingly, he wants criminal charges filed against the owner.
It is an incredibly tragic time for the family of this little boy. I don’t know the exact circumstances of this attack, what kind of conditions the dog had been kept in, and how it was able to enter the home. However, Rottweilers tend to be often linked to dog bite attacks. It’s important to remember though that even the friendliest little Pomeranians can become ferocious if they have been chained with no food and little exercise. Most dog bite cases ultimately come down to irresponsible and negligent ownership, and unfortunately, it’s innocent victims who are left injured and traumatized.
Scott Grossman is a New Jersey dog bite lawyer representing injured victims of dog bite attacks in Monmouth, Bergen, Passaic and Ocean Counties, and across New Jersey.
