Pit Bull Attacks Baby as Father Dozes Off

WESTMINSTER â€”  It was a new parent’s nightmare.

Exhausted from his night-shift job and home alone with the baby, Steve Furguson said he slipped off to sleep on the couch and awoke 45 minutes later to find the family pit bull gnawing on his infant son’s arm.

The father was able to wrest the boy away from the family pet and rush him to the hospital. The 2-month-old infant, Robert, was in stable condition Tuesday night at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim and is expected to return home by week’s end. But he will have to undergo skin graft surgery to close puncture wounds on both arms, the father said.

“I couldn’t believe what I saw. I was kind of dazed,� Furguson, 36, said while sitting in the living room of his small home in a working class neighborhood of Westminster. “I saw the baby’s arm and it looked like just red. . . . I guess the baby started to cry and the dog tried to tend to the baby . . . he just wanted to play.

“He’s just a stupid animal,� Furguson said, shaking his head, still in shock. “I blame myself.�

Furguson said his wife, Deborah Brendt, 32, was at work when the attack occurred. He had put his son, fussy from some shots he had received the day before, in a baby swing to calm him down and then watching the rhythmic movement fell asleep himself.

Max, the family dog, adopted after he showed up on the couple’s doorstep four years ago, was usually kept outside away from the baby but had been let in that morning, Furguson said.

“I blame myself for having the dog in the house, but the dog and the kid had been getting along great. . . . (Max) is the friendliest dog you’d ever see.�

Nonetheless, Furguson said, Max will be put to sleep.

He said his decision has nothing to do with it being a pit bull. “If I owned a Chihuahau or a Great Dane I would have to put it to sleep, I just can’t take the chance of having the kid and the dog in the house together,� Furguson said.