Janaya Everett was attacked by a mixed reed of Pit Bulls at her grandmother’s home in West Orange, New Jersey, on Saturday, May 14. “The baby was lying on the floor bloody with her scalp all messed up, and just a mess… horrible, horrible thing,” Dwyane Harper tells media. Harper, the boyfriend of Janaya’s grandmother, was outside working on a car when he heard the toddler’s gut wrenching wails.
The family says the dogs normally reside in the basement and apparently snuck upstairs into the grandmother’s bedroom.
She was motionless when a witness tried to help. When EMT arrived, they did not wait for a stretcher. They carried Everett out of their house in their arms. They transported her to University Hospital in Newark where they performed emergency surgery.
Both dogs were removed from the home, and Harper says they will most likely be euthanized.
According to dogsbite.org, in the 11-year period of 2005 through 2015, canines killed 360 Americans. Pit Bulls contributed to 64 percent (232) of these deaths. Combined, Pit Bulls and Rottweilers contributed to 76 percent of the total recorded deaths.
Together, Pit Bulls (28) and Rottweilers (3), the second most lethal dog breed, accounted for 91 percent of the total recorded deaths in 2015.
In the year of 2015, the combination of Pit Bulls (28), their close cousins, American bulldogs (2), and Rottweilers (3) contributed to 97 percent (33) of all dog bite-related fatalities.
In 2015, nearly one third, 32 percent (11), of all dog bite fatality victims were either visiting or living temporarily with the dog’s owner when the fatal attack occurred. Children ages nine years and younger accounted for 82 percent (9) of these deaths.
Fifty percent (17) of all fatalities in 2015 involved more than one dog; 15% (5) involved a pack attack of four or more dogs; 21% (7) involved breeding on the dog owner’s property either actively or in the recent past and 6% (2) involved tethered dogs.
Everett is expected to make a full recovery.
