5-Year-Old Boy Mauled By Dog

Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office was called to Mahaska Health on April 29th, 2019 to a report of a child who had been mauled by a Pit Bull mix dog.

The incident took place at what is referred to as Lanphier’s Landing, on the western side of Mahaska County along Highway 92, shortly after 9 pm.

Deputies located the dog and a person who had been taking care of the dog, explaining that he was only feeding the stray.

“It showed up at his house roughly two years ago, and he’d just been kind of feeding it,” explained Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem.

Animal control was then contacted and arrived that evening to the incident location. Permission was given for the dog to be seized and then euthanized.

It was discovered the dog hasn’t had any vaccinations during the past two years.

Van Renterghem said the child did go into surgery that evening “to have some very, very severe lacerations to the head [scalp] repaired.”

The ownership of the dog is still being investigated, along with the rest of the incident, by the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Office. “We will be consulting, between animal control and us [Sheriff’s Office], we will be consulting with the county attorney on it, as far as determining what if any charges will be filed,” explained Van Renterghem.