The girl’s parents were nearby at a family BBQ when the two Rottweilers who killed the five-week-old newborn attacked without warning as the infant slept in a bassinet.
Relatives of the Riley family have described how tiny Mia Jade Riley was sleeping close to a table of six to eight people on Saturday night when the tragedy happened at approximately 10.40 p.m. in Moruya, on the NSW south coast.
They said that the dogs were harmlessly napping around three meters away from the bassinet when, out of the blue, they pounced on the sleeping infant.
Tom Riley, a local chiropractor, and his wife Lani sprang to remove the dogs off their infant daughter as frightened dinner guests rushed to assist.
The little girl was loaded into a vehicle and driven quickly to the neighboring Moruya Hospital while covered in blood. She was unable to be saved, however, and just after midnight she passed away.
A family member told Daily Mail Australia that in order to pull the dogs off, “everyone present had to be engaged.”
That was horrific, and there was a lot of blood.
Simply put, there was no warning.
They had just finished a family cookout with the neighbors at the back of the house when they saw that the dogs were attacking the woman.
There were no other children around, and neither were any dogs roaming loose or being provoked in any way. They weren’t upset or disturbed.
“That simply came about out of the blue.”
He said that the second two-year-old daughter of the parents has been around the dogs several times since her birth without any problems.
He responded, “They’ve done it before, and there have never been any problems.”
They have a second kid who has presumably experienced the same or a very similar situation.
“There has never been a problem.” It’s very awful. It’s just incomprehensible.
He said that the incident had left the little beach community in shock.
He stated, “It’s truly turned this little village upside down.” You have nothing to say. Simply said, it’s sad.
It will be quite difficult for the whole family to cope with this. When I talked to the grandpa, he was just shocked.
The Eurobodalla Shire Council has subsequently taken possession of two Rottweilers.
The canines were taken by municipal rangers, a spokesman said, but she was unable to speak more because of the current police investigation.
The representative was unable to clarify whether the dogs had been put to sleep, as is customary after a deadly dog attack.
A NSW Police investigation has been opened to determine precisely what occurred at the residence, and a police spokesperson was unable to make any other comments.
Three months ago, baby Jyedon Pollard, 2, was fatally attacked by two dogs belonging to hotel personnel while sleeping at Cowra’s Country Gardens Motor Inn in the NSW central-west.
At least 115 of the more than 3350 dog assaults that the NSW council received reports of in 2022 featured Rottweilers.
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