http://www.desmoinesregister.com/art...sitter-charged
A 4-year-old Prairie City girl who loved animals and had a passion for the outdoors died Tuesday from injuries she sustained when she was mauled by her baby sitter’s dog.
Jordyn Arndt was attacked at about 2 p.m. Monday by an American Staffordshire Terrier named Brutus at a house at 300 S. Marshall St. in Prairie City, police said. Jordyn was was flown by air ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines.
The girl died at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday with her family by her side.
“She fought so hard,” the girl’s mother, Jessica Arndt, told the Des Moines Register. “She is loved and will be missed.”
Jena Marie Wright, 24, of Prairie City was baby sitting Jordyn and her brother when the incident occurred. Wright was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with child endangerment causing, a class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. She was also charged with neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1,000 to $10,000. She is being held in the Jasper County Jail.
Thirty-one fatal dog attacks occurred in the U.S. in 2011, the most recent year data is available, according to DogsBite.org. Pit bulls, which make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. dog population, accounted for 71 percent of the attacks, according to the web site.
The American Kennel Club describes American Staffordshire Terriers, as “courageous and strong.” The breed is “loyal to his family and will protect them from any threat,” according to the AKC’s website.
The breed is believed to have originated as a mix of a long-legged English bulldog and a terrier. Over the years, it has also been called a pit dog and a pittbull terrier, according to the AKC.
The most recent death of a child in Iowa involving dog attacks was in March 2011 in Hopkinton. Vanessa Husmann, 3, was attacked in her back yard by two Rottweilers who had gotten out of their kennel.
Prairie City Police Chief Louis Modlin on Monday gave a letter to the owners of the dog — Harmon Wesley Wright III and Jena Wright —telling them it was considered dangerous and that it could not be harbored within the city limits. The dog is in quarantine at a veterinary clinic in Newton, Modlin said.
He declined to comment whether authorities have had previous complaints about the animal or its owners, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.
He did say that city officials would review their animal control policies in the coming days.
The Iowa Department of Human Services could also review the incident, an official said.
DHS performs a child abuse assessment in cases where children receive injuries that appear to be preventable, according to DHS spokesman Roger Munns.
When a child’s injury is caused by an animal, the assessment determines whether there was a failure to provide proper supervision, Munns said. The findings are not considered criminal and the results are not public unless the child dies. In egregious cases, child endangerment charges could be filed, he said.
Munns said DHS investigates a “very small” number cases involving dog bites.
The house where the attack occurred is in the shadow of Prairie City’s towering grain elevator, where worn houses stand next to well maintained ones. The home where the mauling occurred was one of the former.
On Tuesday, two dirt-splattered vehicles sat in front of it — a Jeep 4x4 at the curb, and a Fisher-Price tricycle in the front lawn. Also in the yard was an orange and black stroller that laid on its side and a coiled up dog leash. The metal fenced-in back yard was strewn with children’s toys.
Angela Clark, operates day-care in her home, across the street from where the incident took place. She says the attack has shaken her and patrons of her business.
She said she saw the dog outside only occasionally and felt it was properly cared for but says the incident calls for tighter restrictions on the types of dogs allowed within city limits.
“With that breed of dog, red flags would be raised for me around children, in the neighborhood that we live in,” she said.