France: a 9 year old child killed by the family dog

A nine-year-old boy was killed on Saturday, near Pithiviers, between Paris and Orleans, by the family dog, a rottweiler weighing around sixty kilos with whom he had been left alone by his father, we learned on Monday from the Orleans prosecutor’s office.

An investigation was opened for manslaughter, said Emmanuel Delorme, deputy public prosecutor of Orleans, confirming information from the daily the “Republic of the Center”. The child was bitten to death, especially on the head and neck, by the animal while his father and his older brother had gone shopping, said Emmanuel Delorme.

While he was released, the father received the call from a neighbor telling him he heard his young son screaming. He returned to his home, where he found the bloody child, lying on the ground with large facial wounds.

The father then brought two stab wounds to the dog, whose behavior remained very aggressive towards the victim. Still alive when his father discovered it, the child died on the spot despite the rescue intervention, added the assistant prosecutor. According to the father’s first statements, briefly placed in police custody, and very shocked, the dog had never bitten before the drama.

The investigation, entrusted to the gendarmes of the research brigade and the territorial pithiviers brigade, must verify these declarations and ensure that it has a detention permit for the Rottweiler, a category 2 dog, whose owners are subject to certain obligations. The dog was euthanized and will be the subject of analyzes, in particular to know if it was not infected with rabies, underlined the prosecution.