A 5-year-old girl was killed Sunday after she was attacked by two of her family’s dogs in the backyard of their Southern California home.
The local media reported that the young girl was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
According to KABC, the two dogs responsible for the attack were a 10-year-old Rottweiler and a 6-year-old Rottweiler mix, stating that all four of the family’s dogs were removed from the home after the incident, and helicopter footage from the outlet showed what appeared to be the dogs’ owners ushering the animals out of the house and into custody of local authorities.
Footage from the KABC helicopter also showed dogs behind a fence in the family’s backyard, while cameras captured what appeared to be a pair of young girls’ shoes and clothes strewn about the lawn of the family’s Covina, Calif., home, located just east of Los Angeles.
“The child had been around the dogs her entire life,” Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department homicide Lt. Steven De Jong told City News Service.
Local media have it that the girl was mauled on the head and torso before her father jumped in and separated her from the dogs.
According to KABC, there were no prior incidents with the dogs until Sunday afternoon’s attack. The girl was pronounced dead at the hospital about an hour after the attack.