Activists try to save dog that killed I yr old child in Nevada

the Mastiff-Rhodesian Ridgeback that killed baby Jeremiah

The killer dog, Onion, was slated to be killed on Tuesday, but an 11th hour court injunction on Monday delayed the death at least until a Friday hearing Onion, a 6-year-old mastiff-Rhodesian ridgeback mix was reported to have mauled and killed a Southern Nevada toddler celebrating his first birthday. The boy's family voluntarily gave the animal up for euthanasia after the April 27 death of Jeremiah Eskew-Shahan. But the New York-based Lexus Project argues the animal should be sent to live at a sanctuary outside Denver because it didn't do anything wrong and was only following its nature. The boy's father, Christopher Shahan, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the dog deserves to die. His son was at his grandmother's house in Henderson on his first birthday when he crawled to the sleeping dog and started petting him. Officials said the 120-pound animal latched his jaws around the boy's head and began shaking him. The grandmother tried to pull the boy away. Other family members in the house rushed to help, but it was too late. The boy was flown to a hospital, where he was declared dead the next morning. Rich Rosenthal, a New York-based lawyer who heads The Lexus Project, argued the child and his parents were at fault, not the dog, because the animal's nature is to attack if provoked while sleeping. Under local laws, an animal is declared vicious and slated for euthanasia if it causes substantial bodily harm or death to a person. The Shahan family acquired the dog when it was a puppy and said Onion had never shown aggression toward people. Before the attack, the boy often played with the dog without incident. culled from BBC