5-year-old boy attacked by dogs

SILVERDALE, Wash. — A 5-year-old boy was critically injured Tuesday when he was attacked by two Rottweilers in Silverdale. His mother saved his life, according to family.

Deputies responded to a report of a child who got in the middle of a dogfight in the 5200 block of Northwest Apex Road. When they arrived, deputies found the boy bleeding from his head and neck.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson said the boy was playing with one of three dogs on the property when it suddenly attacked him. Then a second dog joined in. The boy’s mother noticed what was going on, ran outside and jumped on her son -- perhaps saving his life.

“She couldn’t get the dogs off the child because they were too strong, so she laid on the child and the dogs started nipping at her,” Wilson said, adding that the mother did not sustain serious injuries.

The boy was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. According to the 5-year-old’s aunt, he was still in surgery at about 10 p.m. Tuesday.  On Wednesday morning, his condition had been upgraded to serious.

The Kitsap County Humane Society took all three dogs to quarantine and test for rabies, which is standard in this type of situation.

Sheriff’s deputies said the dogs do not normally live at the home. They were staying there because the 5-year-old’s mother was watching them for an ex-boyfriend who’s incarcerated.

Wilson said criminal charges in this case are not expected.

“I don’t think it was ever conceived that the dogs were dangerous,” Wilson said.  “There’d been no predisposition, no attacks, no anything.”

KIRO