Pit Bulls Kill 7-Year-Old Boy Near Abilene

ABILENE, TX (AP) — A 7-year-old boy died after he was attacked by pit bulls while playing outside near his rural home, authorities said.

A driver saw Tanner Joshua Monk of Breckenridge lying next to a road near Hubbard Lake on Sunday with two pit bulls nearby and stopped to check on the child, Stephens County Sheriff Jim Reeves said.

When she left her car, the dogs became aggressive and she called 911, he added.

The dogs also became aggressive toward the two deputies who arrived, and they shot and killed them. The deputies found that Tanner was dead, Reeves said in Monday’s edition of the Abilene Reporter-News.

Tanner was found alone about 150 yards from his house and 50 to 75 yards from his neighbor’s house where he had been playing with some friends, Reeves told The Associated Press on Monday.

The two pit bulls, along with two others seized at the scene by law enforcement, belonged to those neighbors, Reeves said.

An autopsy will be performed on Tanner’s body, and tests will be done on the dogs that were shot.

Reeves said no one has been arrested but that evidence probably will be presented to a grand jury following autopsies and tests. He said foul play is not suspected, although no one saw what happened on the road north of Breckenridge, about 55 miles northeast of Abilene.

“We’re handling this like we would any unattended death,” Reeves said.

He said it’s too soon to say whether the parents face charges for leaving the child alone. Reeves said he called Child Protective Services, as required by law when a child dies. CPS is investigating the family, which had no prior history with the agency, for possible neglectful supervision, spokesman Paul Zimmerman said Monday.

It was the second serious pit bull attack on a child in four days in Texas.

On Wednesday in Fort Worth, a woman’s two pit bulls attacked her 2-year-old niece as she was preparing to give the child a bath, police said. The little girl was critically injured, and her aunt also was injured as she lay over the child trying to protect her, police said.

Animal control officers later euthanized the dogs.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)