BOY MAULED TO DEATH: A pit bull killed a young boy last night in the 8900-block of S. Carpenter in Chicago’s Gresham neighborhood.
Witnesses tell us they tried to rescue the boy who sources say is believed to be 5-years-old.
Neighbors used rocks and other objects to try and free the boy from the dog’s grasp. Tanja Babich ABC7 is live from the scene with the latest on this disturbing story..http://abc7.ws/1JTpmHq
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5-year-old boy mauled to death by dog on South Side
Posted: 05/26/2015, 12:45am | Sun-Times WireA 5-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pit bull Monday night in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.
James W. Nevils III was attacked by the dog in the 8900 block of South Carpenter about 9:35 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Nevils, who lived in the 8000 block of South Escanaba, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 10:08 p.m., authorities said.
Grandfather of boy killed by dog: ‘Person responsible should be made to pay’
By Lolly Bowean –
Police and neighbors said the dog bit the 5-year-old boy in the throat about 9:35 p.m. Monday and didn’t let go until neighbors in the 8900 block of South Carpenter Street repeatedly beat the dog, finally killing it.
“I started hitting the dog with a brick. My brother grabbed a pole from somebody,” said Marquis Lewis, a neighbor. “Then once we got the dog off the baby, we started hitting the dog with the pole and the brick until he died.”
Another neighbor, Bianca White, said she was pulling up to her home across the street when she saw young James Nevils’ mother trying to get the dog off the boy.
“They were trying to drag it out of the house, I guess so people could help,” White said. “So my brother went across the street to get a chair to 
get the dog off the baby, but it didn’t work.
“So other people started coming,” she said. “It had him around the neck, he wasn’t letting go. He was just shaking him by his neck. … They finally got him off, and the boy was sitting there lifeless. … It was the scariest thing I ever seen in my life.”
White said she had seen the dog in the neighborhood, and it had never caused any trouble.
Lewis said he heard screaming from inside the home and then saw the dog with James. “I wasn’t thinking of nothing except getting the dog off the baby,” he said.
Another neighbor said the dog briefly let go of James but then “went back and grabbed the little boy.”
“That’s when the man kept beating the dog, beating the dog,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified. “I seen the mother holding the child, it was horrible. The child wasn’t moving. The mother was screaming, ‘My baby, my baby.'”
Pit Bull Kills Boy in Chicago
Neighbors tried to save boy, 5, by pelting dog with stones.
CHICAGO (AP) — Police say a 5-year-old boy has been mauled to death by a dog on the South Side of Chicago.
Police say the attack happened Monday night in Gresham. The boy was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Neighbors told WLS-TV that people hit the dog with rocks and other objects, killing it and freeing the boy. They said the dog was a pit bull. Marquis Lewis says he didn’t realize at first that the boy was being mauled.
Boy, 5, mauled to death by pit bull despite onlookers beating the dog to death with a brick and chair while trying to stop the deadly attack
James Nevils was outside home in Gresham, Chicago, when dog attacked- Animal latched onto his neck and shoulder as witnesses screamed
- Two men picked up everything they could and started beating the dog
- Pair eventually stabbed and killed it but couldn’t prevent the boy’s death
Marquis Lewis, who tried to save the child, told ABC 7 Chicago: ‘I don’t know, I wasn’t really thinking about nothing but getting the dog off the baby.
First responders found the boy unresponsive at the scene and rushed him to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
He was pronounced dead a short time later. It is not known which family the dog belonged to.
Neighbors told the station the mother and child may have been visiting the house at the time.
Police are yet to make any arrests.
Citations but no charges in Chicago boy’s dog-mauling death
CHICAGO (AP) – Police in Chicago have cited the owner of a dog that mauled a 5-year-old boy to death on the city’s South Side.
Police say they issued two citations but no charges against the dog’s owner. The citations were for owning an animal without up-to-date rabies shots and owning an animal without a license.
The owner’s name was not released.
The Cook County medical examiner says a Tuesday autopsy found that 5-year-old James Nevils’ death was an accident. Authorities say the boy died from multiple sharp and blunt force injuries to his head and neck.
Funeral Expenses for James Nevils 3
This GoFundMe is setup in efforts to help pay for funeral services for James Nevils III A 5-year-old boy was killed by a dog on the city’s South Side Monday May 25, 2015. There was no insurance policy and the family is in need of your help to bury the little boy. Anything will help towards the cause. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Alicia Nevils.
The family thanks you in advance for your help during this difficult time.
chicago.suntimes.com/crime/7/71/635497/police-boy-mauled-death-dog-south-side
Click here to read more and donate
Pit Bull Attacks and Dogfighting in Illinois
dogsbite.org’s google map of Illinois fatal pit bull attacks
UPDATE: May 26, 2015 Chicago Pit Bull Fatally Mauls 5 Year Old Boy
UPDATE – Chicago Animal Care and Control is once again refusing to acknowledge a pit bull that launched a fatal attack is a pit bull.
“Brad Powers, a spokesman for the Commission on Animal Care and Control, said the dog was “large and muscular.”
“While we have no way to confirm a dog breed based on physical characteristics alone, the animal has features consistent with the Dogo Argentino breed,” he said in an email.”
People can identify pit bulls by physical appearance. That obvious fact has been upheld by court decisions.
Powers’ other statement is true, however, because every single pit bull does, in fact, have features consistent with the Dogo Argentino breed because pit bulls and other related gripping dog breeds were all foundation stock for the development of Dogo Argentinos which were developed for the exact same purposes as pit bulls and all gripping dogs – dog fighting and “hunting” by attacking large game. See this link and this link for more about Dogos and their relationship to pit bulls.
Thankfully, the dangerous gripping breed Dogo Argentino is still fairly scarce in the United States. On two pages of Dogo Argentino Breeder websites, no puppies were available immediately and all were being bred as catch dogs for hog dogging. On BYB breeder sites, there was one single Dogo puppy listed for $1800. The rest of the Dogo puppies were listed for between $2400 and $3300.
So, the expert handlers at CACC looked at a white (and some say white and brown) pit bull, with supposedly no other information, and jumped to the conclusion that instead of a pit bull mix, they were looking at different, rare, expensive, related pit fighting/big game hunting dog.
This is not the first time that CACC has tried to hide the pit bull. In 2010, after Johnny Wilson was killed by his daughter’s 6 pit bulls, then director Cherie Travis contended that the killer dogs were completely unidentifiable mixed breeds.
It is downright frightening that CACC persists in misleading the public in order to protect pit bulls.
Click here to read full story on “Pit Bull Attacks & Dogfighting In Illinois”
American Pit Bull Terrier
The American Pit Bull Terrier is, like all the ‘bully’ breeds, one of this group of descendants of the British ‘bull and terrier’ type fighting bulldogs. Once imported into the United States, it was bred up to be bigger again, and again used in baiting animals and in dogfighting. The American Kennel Club (founded 1884) was unwilling to register these fighting dogs, so in 1898 the United Kennel Club was founded specifically to register working pit-fighting dogs and to promote dogfighting. In order to be registered, a dog had to first win three pit fights7,8,9. The American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) became a ‘breed’. As dogfighting declined in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, Colby (the most famous and prolific breeder of these dogs) began to search for a new market and began promoting the APBT as family pets10,11. This despite the fact that his breeding lines included child killers12.
The APBT is of medium intelligence, and it is athletic. They have plenty of energy and exuberance for life. They are affectionate companions are often referred to as a “nanny dog”, which leads many families to believe that they are suitable companions for children. Many can live happily with children and never have an issue, but there are many cases of the family pit bull suddenly attacking or killing a child in the household. The Pit Bull advocacy group BADRAP recently retracted their original “nanny dog” statements (https://www.facebook.com/BADRAP.org/posts/10151460774472399)13.In 2013 and 2014, in the United States, 27 children were killed by Pit Bulls and their mixes. Most of these children were killed by family pet pit bulls that had never been neglected or abused and had always loved the child. As with all breeds, the traits needed for their original tasks remain in the dogs – in this case, the sudden explosive aggression that was necessary to survive in the fighting pit. An APBT may never show this aggression, but if it does there will be no warning and the attack will not be easy to stop. Extreme caution should always be taken when this breed interacts with children. They are fun loving dogs that have “clownish” behaviors. Despite, their many positive qualities, this breed may not be suitable for everyone. Their high energy requires a family that can accommodate and appreciate this aspect of their personality. They usually do best with active families. Many American Pit Bull Terriers get calmer as they age and an older dog may work for a more reserved family.
It is recommended that American Pit Bull Terrier owners have and carry a break stick17. A break stick is a device designed to open a Pit Bull type dog’s mouth while it is engaged in fighting. Pit Bull type breeds have a very distinctive fighting style and often will latch on their opponent and not let go. They usually will shake the other animal violently when they are latched on. This can cause horrific damage quickly. The break stick was designed by dog fighters to be inserted into the Pit Bull’s mouth and release his grip. The original purpose was to safely end a dog fight. The break stick often is the ONLY thing that will release the dog’s grip. People have been known to hit Pit Bulls with objects such as a bat or even shoot them and the dog still will not let go. Bully Breed owners should always have one handy in cause of an emergency. The break stick is not safe to use on other breeds of dogs and is only recommended for dogs in the Pit Bull family that were once used for dog fighting purposes.
Click here to learn more about the American Pit Bull Terrier
Dogo Argentino
The Dogo Argentino is a South American mix of various European fighting / baiting types of dogs. It was created mostly from the Cordoba fighting dog (Perro de Pelea Cordobes). The Cordoba fighting dog was a mix of the original English bear-, bull- and horse-shredding mastiff, back-crossed with the pit-fighting bulldog and the English bull terrier. It was created expressly for dogfighting. The Cordoba fighting dog was noted for its willingness to fight to the death and for its high pain tolerance, continuing to fight even when it was mortally wounded. It was so aggressive that the males and females preferred to fight rather than mate. It was unstable and often turned on its human handlers.
Cordoba fighting dog:
In the early 1920s two brothers in an elite dogfighters’ family became interested in creating a larger, more dependable fighting dog that could also be used to hunt dangerous wild animals. The brothers wanted the new dog to be stable, but nevertheless so large, tenacious and tireless that a single dog would be able to catch and debilitate a puma. Sometimes called the Argentine bulldog, the Dogo Argentino (also called the Argentinean Mastiff) was created by back-crossing the Cordoba fighting dog with several other fighting / baiting breeds: the Spanish mastiff, Dogue de Bordeaux and Great Dane (which at the time was still a barrel-bodied German mastiff type), and some English bull terrier, Boxer, and pit-fighting bulldog to add agility. It is said that some pointer was added to get a keen sense of smell, Great Pyrenese to get the white coat, and Irish Wolfhound for running stamina.
After dogfighting was banned in Argentina in 1954, the fans of the Argentinean Mastiff began promoting it exclusively as a hunting dog, though it continued to be used in clandestine dogfighting.
The Dogo Argentino now looks much like the Cordoba fighting dog did, but larger. The Cordoba fighting dog is extinct – probably replaced by the Dogo Argentino as the favored pit fighter. Though the breeding program was started in the 1920s, the Argentinean Mastiff was not recognized by any legitimate kennel club until 1973 (the Federation Cynologique Iinternational).
The present-day Dogo Argentino:
The Dogo Argentino is still used in Argentina as a fighting dog. Like many of the fighting breeds in North America, it is still also used to hunt wild boar and mountain lions, still able to attack and debilitate these animals for the hunter. As bans on dogfighting became more widespread, and as many animals such as pumas and bears began to enjoy some protection as endangered species, breeders began promoting the Dogo as a household pet., much the same as the breeders of North American fighting breeds did.
Click here to read more about the Dogo Argentino
WHY DO WE CALL THEM ‘PIT BULL TYPE DOGS’?
The arms race
Most lately we’ve seen a modern arms race in circles that favor this type of inherently dangerous dog, leading to the mixing of ever more local mastiff types with fighting bulldog / pit bull types. The fans of the new mix then apply to kennel clubs to have their own pit bull – mastiff mix recognized as a new ‘breed’. It’s this arms race, with its greed for cash, that has given us the many pit bull mixes people are now pretending are a separate mastiff ‘breed’: the ‘Cane Corso’, ‘Dogo Argentino’, ‘Dogue de Bordeaux’, ‘Bullmastiff’, to name a few.
The instant a kennel club dispenses a new official name for such a mix, the mix’s fans start to claim that their ‘breed’ is distinct. Suddenly the newest pit fighting bulldog – mastiff mix is a ‘breed’ that has nothing to do with any other pit bull, mastiff, or pit bull – mastiff mix, as if the new mix’s genes materialized out of thin air.
In fact, these pit bull – mastiff mixes are pit bull type dogs, no less than any other backyard-bred pit bull mix.
2015 Dog Bite Related Fatalities in the U.S.
Updated after each fatality following fact finding research
15 Dog Bite Related Fatality
by Breed.
10 by Pit Bull/Pit Bull Mix
1 by Rottweiler
4 Unknown
By Age :
06 Children
09 Adult
By State :
NM – 1 death
MD – 1 death
FL – 1 death
IA – 1 death
AR – 1 death
PA – 1 death
W. VA – 1 death
TX – 3 death
SD – 1 death
AR – 1 death
GA – 1 death
NV – 1 death
IL – 1 death
Names and ages of the deceased:
Unidentified Native American – about 40 y,o. – Gallup, NM – Pack of Feral Dogs [1.2.15]
Eugene W. Smith – 87- Frederick, MD – 1 Pit Bull [1.7.15]
Declin Moss – 18 months – Brooksville, FL – 2 Pit Bulls [1.19.15]
Malaki Mildward – 7yrs old – College Springs, IA – 2 Pit Bull/Bull Dog Mix [1.22.15]
Fredrick Crutchfield – 63 yrs old – Johnson county, AR – Pit Bull [ 2.4.15]
TayLynn DeVaughn – 2 yrs old – Pittsburgh, PA – Pit Bull [2.22.15]
Roy Higgenbotham – 62 yrs old – WHEELING, W.Va. – Pit Bull [3.8.15]
Betty Wood – 78 yrs old – SULPHUR SPRINGS, TX – Rottweiler [3.12.15]
Julia Charging Whirlwind – 49 yrs old – WHITE RIVER, SD – Pending [3.14.15]
Detrick Johnson – 36 yrs old – JEFFERSON COUNTY, AR – 7 Pit Bulls [3.21.15]
Neta Lee Adams – 81 yrs old – WASHINGTON, GA – Pending [3.31.15]
Kenneth Ford – 79 yrs old – NYE COUNTY, NV – Pit Bulls [4.14.15]
Brayden Wilson – 2 months old – Dallas, TX – Pit Bull [4.19.15]
Gaege Anthony Ramirez – 7 yrs old – NEW BRAUNFELS, TX – Pending [5.2.15]
(1/19)
James W. Nevils III – 5 yrs old – CHICAGO, IL – Pit bull [5.26.15]
tears .. this is so horrific and so preventable. We might expect this in undeveloped nations, but in a country that spends BILLIONS on police and animal control.. these deaths are increasing. The existence of pitbulls as pets is a textbook example of everything that is wrong with the American Political System.