A six-week-old baby named Ezra Mansoor died after being attacked by the family’s pet dog while he was sleeping in his crib.
The tragic event occurred on May 24 at the Mansoor family home. “You just think it would never happen to you, but it can happen to anyone—with any dog breed, no matter how long you’ve had the dog,” Ezra’s mother, Chloe, shared with NBC affiliate WIBR.
Describing her son, Chloe said, “Ezra meant everything. There’s really no words other than just absolutely everything.” According to her, the family had two dogs, and it was their husky, which had never shown signs of aggression before, that bit the infant “without warning.”
Ezra was immediately taken to a nearby hospital for treatment but sadly was pronounced dead on May 30. Reflecting on the loss, Chloe expressed, “All the sleepless nights and the dirty diapers—looking back, I would take a million sleepless nights and dirty diapers and all the fussiness, you would take it all back in a second and never take any moment or second for granted.”
Following his death, Ezra’s parents made the difficult decision to donate his organs.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the incident as part of their standard protocol. The dog involved in the attack has been placed in a local animal shelter for a 10-day bite quarantine.
The National Canine Research Council (NCRC) commented on the incident, stating that “unprovoked attacks” are unusual among dogs. “It’s much more likely that the person wasn’t able to read or didn’t notice the signal the dog was sending before the bite, or even that he felt reduced to a pre-emptive strike because the person had a history of forcing him into icky, scary situations,” the NCRC explained.
They urged people to consider what signals the dog might have given before the bite, highlighting the importance of understanding canine body language.