Nine-year-old boy bitten to death by family dog in Loiret

An investigation has been opened into involuntary manslaughter, Emmanuel Delorme, deputy public prosecutor of Orléans, told AFP, confirming a report from the daily newspaper La République du Centre.

The child was bitten to death, particularly on the head and neck, by the animal while his father and older brother were out shopping, Mr. Delorme said.

While he was out, the father received a call from a neighbor saying he had heard his young son screaming. He returned to his home in Escrennes, near Pithiviers, where he found the bloodied child lying face down with significant facial injuries.

The father then stabbed the dog twice, and its behavior remained very aggressive toward the victim. Still alive when his father discovered him, the child died at the scene despite emergency services responding, the deputy prosecutor added.

According to the initial statements of the father, briefly taken into custody and very shocked, the dog had never bitten before the tragedy.

The investigation, entrusted to the gendarmes of the research brigade and the territorial brigade of Pithiviers, will have to verify these statements and ensure that he had a permit to keep the Rottweiler, a category 2 dog whose owners are subject to certain obligations.

The dog was euthanized and will undergo tests, in particular to determine whether it was infected with rabies, the prosecutor's office stressed.