Some background...
This happened in 2009 and the link is no longer active but here is the thread Chet posted about it with an excerpt of the article...
Baby attacked, killed by two pit bulls in San Antonio, Texas
Sudetenland also captured part of the article that contained salient info....
"Relatives said the grandmother frequently baby-sits her grandson, but said that when the baby is around, the dogs are usually outside, in a small, fenced-in yard.
The dogs were kind to the grandmother, relatives said, but were aggressive toward others.
One relative said the dogs bit her 8-year-old niece in the face once, and added she thought the dogs should have been put down then.
A sign on the front gate warns pedestrians on the busy neighborhood street to beware of the dogs.
“Are those dogs dangerous? You better believe it,” said neighbor Larry Salazar, who congregated with several other neighbors after they heard the shots fired.
Ramon Sanchez, whose grandmother lives next-door to where the attack occurred, said the two dogs were at least 120 pounds each and were vicious."
From another source, also now dead, this info....
"They don't come out the gate," Raymond Sanchez told News 4 WOAI.
"But, I mean, they're huge. They're just not average dogs, they're big pit bulls. Do you know what I mean? They must weigh 150 pounds."
The reports of the size of these dogs, if true, led me to think they were not 'pitbulls' and perhaps American Bulldogs of some sort of Mastiff.
I continued investigating and found this additional info...
Baby said to have fallen off the bed and startled the dogs.
Dogs reported as intact males.
The info of the reported weight of the dogs, on top of it the photo of the dog, which to me didn't appear to look like a 'pitbull', the color was wrong,
motivated me, here in Canada, to investigate further what happened in San Antonio.
Here is my report of the additional information I discovered...
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I just got off the phone with Lisa Norwood of San Antonio Animal Services.
She was there at the scene of the attack and observed the dogs.
I raised the question of the reported weights of the dogs.
She said the reports were not accurate
and gave the weights of the dogs as between 75 and 85 lbs.
She said that one of the dogs was a type of pitbull mix
the other definitely was not...she judged it to be a Retriever mix.
She had this important piece of information...
both dogs were intact males.
Animal Services had never been called to this address
nor had any reported problems with these dogs.
She did say there were anecdotal reports some of which fell
into normal dog behavior...barking at the fence at passerbys
but they had no reports of bites and under Texas law
bites must be reported no matter how small and the dog must undergo quarantine.
The dogs were both licensed but didn’t have the recommended micro-chip
also, they did not have the required special license for an intact dog, cost of which is $50.
We discussed the function of the dogs
and agreed that while it was appeared they served as guard dogs
the fact that they lived in the house indicated
they also functioned as family dogs.
She mention that one of the elements of the story that still is not clear
is how the dogs got outside which is where they were when the police arrived.
We chatted a bit longer and both agreed
that so many of these tragedies could be avoided
if people just did the sensible and responsible thing
and did not leave infants unattended with dogs.
She was very helpful in answering my questions and I’d like to thank her
and all the folks at San Antonio Animal Services for the fine work they do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So for guessing a Yellow Lab... I'll throw in $10 to the Freepathon and ask that it show as your contribution.
I have a follow-up to this story that I'll post separately.