04/29/2003

Anna Rau
Idaho's NewsChannel 7

Animal control officers are getting ready to put down a wolf hybrid that they say attacked and killed a 13-month-old baby boy. The dog is a one and a half year old wolf hybrid named "Koa".

The owner who didn't want to go on camera says "Koa" is 75% wolf, but police say she's 90%

Thomas and Jenkins reportedly left the child alone, asleep on the couch in the living room with Koa.

At some point, the dog attacked the baby, dragging him off the coach, biting his neck, puncturing his jugular and nipping him hundreds of times.

Investigators say they may eventually file charges in connection with the dog attack if they determine anyone was negligent. The also say alcohol and marijuana were present in the home.

But Jenkins says Thompson only drank part of a beer and that both of them were sleeping close enough to hear the baby if he cried.

Jenkins believes Koa choked the baby when she bit into his neck so the baby could not cry out.

He also says Thompson is a wonderful mother who loved her son dearly.

Jenkins is the one who found the baby and tried to resuscitate him.

And this isn’t the first time Koa has bitten a child. Now that Boise family is counting their blessings that the attack on their 7-year-old son wasn’t any worse.

"Two lacerations on top of the head and some just scratch marks and he had one big one like this deep in here." Jason Lathim says, describing the injuries Kao inflicted on their son, Alec.

It was just about 5 months ago that the Lathims were helping a friend move when their son had a violent run-in with Koa.

"It made me sick to may stomach all day long, I was just thinking that could very well be my son." Jason Lathim said.

Lathim says he doesn’t want to think about what could’ve happened to 7 year old Alec if he hadn’t gotten there in time.

He says they were helping a friend move in the basement of the home on Frederic street when he heard Alec screaming.

"It looked as though he was playing at first and I got closer and started to run towards him saw that he was actually biting him." Lathim said.

"He leaped up off his hind legs and put his paws and legs on my shoulders on to me and pushed me down on my knees and starting clawing and biting all over my head." Alec said.

Lathim says they believe Koa was just playing and didn’t know he was playing too rough.

"We do not recommend wolf hybrids we do not recommend the breeding of them and the owning of them at all." Dee Fugit with the Idaho Humane Society said.

Fugit says they’ve never had a case of a wolf hybrid killing a child before.

But she says hybrids by nature can be extremely dangerous and need special care.

"We do not adopt them from our shelter knowing that they are wolf hybrids at all, we euthanize them."

"It shocked me to hear that the dog caused anything, specially someone's death." Neighbor Irwin Jassen said.

Jassen says Koa would often try to play with his cats and he was shocked when he heard what had happened.

As for the Lathims they were shocked too they had decided not to push to have Koa put down, because they thought it would never happen again.

"It was just something that we didn’t feel that the dog had to be put down. But it’s maybe a mistake on our part, but we didn’t have any idea that it would happen again.” Lathim said.

Animal control officers plan to put Koa down and then take forensic evidence from her teeth.