- Axel Foster, 4, taken to hospital in Oklahoma after a pit bull tore his right arm off
- The vicious animal severed his limb just below the shoulder while the youngster was at his grandparents’ home in Tecumseh on Friday night
- Emergency services arrived to find the boy’s arm still in an outdoor pen where the dogs had been kept
- Police and animal control tried to retrieve the arm but the dog was aggressive
- The vicious pet was later shot and killed by animal control officers
- Doctors attempted to reattach the arm but the surgery was unsuccessful
- The family have set up a GoFundMe account to help pay medical expenses
A young boy from Oklahoma had his entire right arm ripped off after he put his hand inside a pen to pet some puppies at his grandmother’s house.
Axel Foster’s arm, from just beneath the shoulder, was ripped off during the horrifying mauling on Friday night at his grandparents house in the town of Tecumseh, near Oklahoma City.
‘I’ve seen dog bites in the past and experienced some pretty brutal dog bites with children but never a complete amputation,’ said Chief JR Kidney, with the Tecumseh Police Department.
Axel Foster, 4, was taken to hospital in Oklahoma after a pit bull tore his right arm off
The vicious animal severed his limb just below the shoulder while the youngster was at his grandparents’ home in Tecumseh on Friday night. The pit bulls were kept in a pen, above
The vicious pet was later shot and killed by animal control officers, pictured
‘The child’s arm was still in the pen. When officers and animal control attempted to retrieve the arm, the dog became aggressive to them’, said Kidney.
When officers arrived at the home, they found the grandmother with her grandson in the driveway.
Police officers together with firefighters arrived and applied a tourniquet to the wound.
Emergency services arrived to find the boy’s arm still in an outdoor pen, pictured, where the dogs had been kept
Police and animal control tried to retrieve the arm but the dog was aggressive towards them
Doctors attempted to reattach four-year-old Axel’s arm, but the surgery was unsuccessful
‘What if he doesn’t make it through?’ Axel’s mom, Destiny McDow, is said to have spoken out loud at the time.
Officer Aaron McCormick detailed in his police report: ‘I could see the arm inside, and one of the puppies was trying to chew on it.’
The boy was raced to the hospital in order to have his arm reattached but the surgery was not successful.
‘We raced to the hospital. When we got there, the nurses confirmed his arm was dismembered from his body,’ McDow said to KFOR. ‘I don’t know what he’s going through. I never went through it. But he’s only a child.’
‘To be over just an innocent type thing of wanting to pet some puppies, it’s just devastating,’ said Chief Kidney. ‘What kind of Christmas is this child gonna have now? What kind of life, in general, is this child gonna have now?’ he pondered.
‘To be over just an innocent type thing of wanting to pet some puppies, it’s just devastating,’ said Chief JR Kidney, pictured. ‘What kind of Christmas is this child gonna have now? What kind of life, in general, is this child gonna have now?’ he pondered.
The family have set up a GoFundMe account to help pay Axel’s medical expenses
‘We raced to the hospital. When we got there, the nurses confirmed his arm was dismembered from his body,’ Axel’s mom, Destiny McDow, right, said. ‘I don’t know what he’s going through. I never went through it. But he’s only a child.’
The dog that mauled little Axel was shot and killed.
Tecumseh Police Department together with the Department of Human Services are now trying to determine if Axel was being properly supervised at the time. If not, the grandparents may yet face charges of child neglect.
‘I’m hoping it was simply an accident that the child was able to get to the pen, but we will look at everything,’ Kidney said
The family have set up a GoFundMe account in which Dow detailed how her little boy is still not out of danger: ‘He has undergone two surgeries, and is still fighting not only to keep his arm but his life.’