A pair of Rottweilers mauled a 2-year-old boy to death as their owner was allegedly taking a nap, police said. The woman operating the facility, Stacy Wheeler Cobb, 48, left the toddler unattended in a day care centre in Georgia, USA, when the attack occurred, according to the Valdosta Police Department.
As Ms Wheeler was taking a nap, the boy reportedly escaped from her house, where she ran the care home, to the backyard. There, he opened a kennel housing two Rottweilers that attacked him. The boy was already dead when emergency services arrived at the home at around 3:45pm. Ms Cobb was babysitting 10 children a the unlicensed facility, but when the incident happened, the boy was the only child there.
Animal control officers took custody of the two Rottweilers and a third dog that was not involved in the attack, the New York Times reported.
The boy’s mother, Adrianna Jones, started to be worried about her child when she did not hear from Ms Cobb, and she left work early to check on the son. Upon arriving, she saw there was a large police presence.
She did not name her son but identified him on a GoFundMe fund-raising page as Kaimir Jones, writing that he was her only child and that she was a single mother.
Ms Cobb was charged with second-degree cruelty to children and was taken to Lowndes County Jail, where she was denied bond, according to jail records.
“This was a heartbreaking, devastating and traumatizing scene that I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Ms Jones wrote. “I found my baby like this.”
“This is a horrible and tragic event that should have never occurred, but because of negligence on this offender’s behalf, a mother has tragically lost a child,” Leslie Manahan, the Valdosta police chief, said in a statement.
It was not clear if Ms Cobb had a lawyer.
