Family pets are,on the internet at least, normally shown as protective of their family, especially babies and children. One family in Georgia, however, learned that some pets don’t make friends with toddlers.

Local Savannah, Georgia news station WTOC is reporting that a 21-month-old girl was killed when seven dogs attacked her outside her home in Ellabell, Georgia. The seven dogs were all pit bulls or pit bull-mixed, and have now been put down.

The girl, Monica Laminack, reportedly crawled outside through a doggie door while her 12-year-old brother was supposed to be watching her. In total, there were a reported five people in the house at the time of the mauling. The family owned a total of nine dogs. A beagle and Irish setter were not involved in the attack, and were not put down.

Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith told WTOC that the girl was found with multiple bites on her body and had apparently been dragged throughout the yard sometime during the hour-and-a-half after she crawled outside. Smith related that the girl’s body was cold when first responders arrived, indicating that she had been dead for some time. The sheriff indicated that he expects charges related to the death to be filed.

(Image courtesy Dante Alighieri/Wikimedia Commons)