A 7-month-old baby girl died last weekend in Coventry, England, after her family’s dog “tragically” bit her at their home.
West Midlands Police publicly identified the infant as Elle Doherty on Friday, June 21 — five days after officers were called to her home at Shorncliffe Road around 3 p.m. local time on Sunday, June 16.
According to The Independent, a West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesperson said they received a call at 3:01 p.m. before sending over “two ambulances, a specialist paramedic, a paramedic officer and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.” The baby was then taken to the hospital via “land ambulance.”
The release from West Midlands Police said that the ambulance arrived at the scene within “minutes” and discovered Doherty had “received serious injuries to her head after being bitten by the family’s dog inside the home.”
West Midlands Police
“Elle received treatment at the scene by paramedics before being rushed to hospital for further treatment,” the police release read. “Tragically, she died a short time later. Our thoughts remain with her family at this devastating time.”
The dog was revealed to have been registered as a Belgian Malinois and it was “removed from the home on Sunday and humanely destroyed,” per West Midlands Police.
Elsewhere, the statement said that, “following a detailed investigation into the circumstances of the death” of Elle, “detectives are now satisfied that there have been no criminal offenses.”
“We have updated Elle’s family, and a file is now being prepared for the Coroner. Our thoughts remain with the family at this tragic time, and they have now asked to be left to grieve in private,” West Midlands Police concluded.
In December 2023, The Independent reported that fatal dog attacks hit a record high in the last two years in the U.K., with 16 deaths by dog bites recorded in 2023 and six in 2022. Before that, the outlet noted, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics had not seen the number surpass five deaths between 1991 and 2021.
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The latest tragic death comes just weeks after a newborn baby in Tennessee died after being attacked by a family dog in his crib while he was sleeping.
On May 30, the 6-week-old boy Ezra was pronounced dead after his family’s husky — who parents Mark Mansoor and Chloe Mansoor said hadn’t shown signs of aggression before — attacked him in his sleep.
“You just think it would never happen to you. But it can happen to anyone, with any dog breed, no matter how long you’ve had the dog,” Chloe told local news outlet WBIR shortly after the incident.
The family told the outlet that the dog “just attacked out of nowhere.” Chloe also paid tribute to her son, telling ABC 7 that being Ezra’s mother was “the biggest honor and the best thing I’ve ever done.”
“Really don’t take anything for granted, even if it’s a moment, you’re annoyed in the moment or frustrated in. All of those little moments are still so amazing,” she said.
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