Parents Issue Warning After Family Dog Kills Newborn in Crib

A Tennessee couple whose dog fatally attacked their newborn son last month is issuing a stark warning to other pet owners about the potential dangers of leaving children alone with pets.

Mark Mansoor, 28, and Chloe Mansoor, 23, of Knoxville, Tennessee, lost their six-week-old son, Ezra, after their pet husky attacked the baby as he napped in his crib on May 24. The newborn succumbed to his injuries in the hospital on May 30, according to local station WBIR.

The Mansoors said during a press conference last week that they owned the female husky involved in the attack for eight years and said she never showed any signs of aggression toward children before the deadly encounter with their son.

“Ezra was just asleep in his crib, not crying or anything, and she just attacked out of nowhere,” Chloe Mansoor said during the news conference shared online by WBIR on May 30.

“I think you can never be too careful, no matter how big or small the dog or how long you’ve had them, or how good they’ve previously been with kids, you can never be too careful,” she said.

Newsweek reached out via GoFundMe on Sunday to the Mansoor family for comment.

The husky is currently being held at a Knoxville shelter “under a 10-day bite quarantine as required by state law,” Young-Williams Animal Center said in a statement to WBIR. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the dog attack.

Newsweek reached out via email on Sunday night to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Young-William Animal Center for comment and an update on the incident.

While the majority of dogs never harm humans, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that over 4 million people are bitten by dogs in the U.S. annually, with one in five bites requiring victims to seek medical attention, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The CDC data also showed that it’s rare for a dog bite to result in death, however, dozens of people are killed by canines each year in the U.S., with children being more likely to be seriously injured or killed.

The nonprofit DogsBite.org compiled data and found that from 2005 to present, there were about 760 dog bite fatalities, with huskies involved in 20 of the reported deaths. Of the 20 husky victims, 18 were children under the age of 5, according to the data.

“Despite huskies being infrequently involved in fatal dog maulings in the U.S., they are still among the top killing dog breeds, and they still disproportionately kill infants,” the nonprofit wrote.

Chloe Mansoor told local station WVLT that her family hoped Ezra’s story could “bring awareness that it could be any dog at any time. Completely unprovoked, no matter what the history is.”