A FRANTIC mum screamed: “The dog ate my baby’s head” just moments after her
six-day-old baby was savaged to death in their family home.
Anguished Sharon John, 42, ran to her neighbours in shock after her newborn
girl was found dead next to their Husky-like pet called Nisha.
Mother-of-three Sharon cried out: “I don’t know what to do. The dog ate my
baby’s head.”
Tragic Eliza-Mae spent three days in an intensive care unit in hospital after
she was born last week.
She had only come home at the weekend - and had spent just two nights in her
nursery at the family home before her tragic death.
Mum Sharon was shaking in terror when she spoke to neighbour Patricia Punter
just minutes after police were called to her home in a quiet Welsh country
village at breakfast time.
Patricia, 71, said: “It was terrible — I’ve never heard anything like it.
Sharon was in a state of shock and just screaming.
“She just kept on saying: “The dog ate my baby’s head. He’s blaming me for it
— the baby’s gone.”
Sharon's partner Patric Mullane, 33, brought the Alaskan Malamute, named
Nisha, home from a night out at the pub.
Mrs Punter said: “They’d had the dog for a few months because Pat is really
soft for dogs.
“He brought it home from the pub because someone had told him they were going
to get rid of it.
“Nisha was about five or six years old but looked older. I think it may have
badly treated in the past.
“God only knows what has gone on in there. But Sharon was in bits — she was
with a policeman and they wouldn’t let her back into the house.
“She came into my house to use the toilet and that’s when she told me what
happened to the baby.
“She’d only brought the baby home in the last week. It is just awful — they
loved their dogs as much as their children.”
Sharon has two other children in their terraced house in the village of
Pontyberem, near Carmarthen, South Wales.
The family also have another pet dog, a terrier called Roxy, who was later
being looked after by Mrs Punter.
Nisha was seized by police investigating the tragic death.
Neighbour Jennifer Brown, 66, told how she caught the dog after the attack as
it wandered the street — and handed it over to police.
Mrs Brown said: “I looked outside my front window and saw the dog by the
ambulance.
“The dog was just walking about and I went out and caught it and handed it to
the police.
“It’s a big dog and white around the mouth — but I didn’t see anything that
caught my eye to say anything had gone on.
“It walked along the pavement and I thought it was strange because people
don’t normally let their dogs wander the street.
“I hadn’t seen the dog on the street before but I called it over from the
ambulance.
“It came to me and I said: “Go home” but instead it went to our neighbours'
porch and ate their cat’s food.
“I got it to come back out and led it down to the house where all the police
were and handed it over to them.
“They put it in the back of the police car.”
Chief Inspector Ieuan Matthews at the scene said the girl was dead by the time
the ambulance arrived in the quiet street.
The family went with the baby to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff
where they spent “some time” with her body.
Chief Insp Matthews said: “It's a really tragic incident that we're at the
early stages of investigating, our hearts as individuals, and as a police
service go out to the parents, the family and the wider community.
"As part of our inquiry we have taken into possession the family dog,
it's an Alaskan Malamute-type dog and that is with us while inquiries
continue.
"We have specially trained liaison officers helping the family through
this difficult time.
"The family are hugely distressed."
Police confirmed a post mortem examination will be held to investigate the
cause of death before they would confirm it was a dog attack.
The Alaskan Malamute is similar to a husky and is not a banned breed.
The Alaskan Malamute Club of the United Kingdom describes the breed as a
“affectionate, friendly, loyal, devoted companion” on its website.
It says an ideal Alaskan Malamute is ’heavily boned, powerfully built’ — and
also very intelligent animals, though they can be hard to train.
Neighbours said they often saw the black and white dog on a lead with the
couple. They would tie it up outside a local supermarket where children
would stroke it.
Ann Williams, 69, said: “It wasn’t a savage dog. It would let children pet it
and it was a very attractive animal.”
But another neighbour said the dog had escaped the night before because a
nearby bitch was in season.
He said: “Another neighbour found it and took it home. Perhaps the dog was
feeling wound up.”
Alan Lewis, chairman of Pontyberem Community Council said: “We are just
horrified with what’s happened and our thoughts go out to the family
involved.”
He said Pontyberem was a small, quiet village where “everybody looks out for
each other”.
The village, population 2,700, was in a state of shock at the tragedy.
Fellow community councillor Alban Rees, said: “This is a young family and a
young life has been lost.
“This is the first time I’ve come across anything like this. But the community
will be extremely supportive and do anything to help the family involved.”
