BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — A search warrant describes the lengths people went through to try to save a 3-year-old who was attacked by dogs on July 19.
Brooklyn Park Police Precinct Inspector and Public Information Officer Elliot Faust said the child and his mother were at a home on Brooklyn Park Drive to look at puppies. The homeowner of the dogs who attacked the child recently had a litter.
The search warrant stated, “there was going to be a sale of dogs taking place at the address.” The search warrant reported during the showing of dogs, one of them started to attack the child and then a second dog jumped in.
“It was a pretty horrific scene,” Faust said. “When officers first arrived, the dogs were still attacking.”
The search warrant said adults “started to defend the 3-year-old by using hammers and pick axes to get the dogs off the 3-year-old."
Faust said police have not received any animal-related calls to that address before Friday. He said the dogs who attacked the child were American Bullies.
“American Bullies is a type of dog that folks have been breeding for years. It’s a small, stocky, medium build type dog,” said Shannon Glenn, Executive Director of My Pitbull is Family. “They’re not necessarily a breed of dog, they kind of fall under that category of Pitbull or mixed breed dogs.”
Glenn works to dispel misconceptions people have about bully breeds, but she understands why some might have a negative view of these breeds because of the recent dog attacks.
“We know that things happen and it’s very unfortunate when it does, but I would strongly recommend that folks still consider science and breed doesn’t equal behavior and that all dogs are individuals, but I also recognize that it’s a very hard time for me to say that,” she said. “We have to remember if one thing happens with one dog that’s not going to happen with all of them.”
She said there are signs people can watch out for that signal when a dog is getting tense.
“Dogs speak their own language, so when they’re growling, they’re getting tense, their eyes get really big and you can see the whites of their eyes,” she said.