12-day-old baby was mauled to death by family’s Chow Chow ‘Teddy’ after dog ‘leapt from garden pen’

A DOG which mauled a newborn baby to death was ‘probably jealous’ or thought the tiny tot was a toy, the victim’s devastated uncle said today.

The three-foot tall Chow Chow crossbreed called Teddy has now been destroyed following Sunday afternoon’s horror.

Tragic 12-day-old Elon has been lying in his Moses basket in a downstairs room at the family home when the huge fluffy dog bounded inside after escaping from his pen in the back garden.

He grabbed the infant, who weighted less than seven pounds, in his jaws as his dad and the baby’s brother battled in vain to save him.

The child’s mother Abigail Ellis, 27, was upstairs in the bathroom but her fiancé Stephen Joynes, 35, and young son witnessed the appalling attack at the terraced house in Woodlands on the outskirts of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

The infant’s older brother, believed to be Kai aged eight or nine, has been left ‘traumatised,’ his uncle said.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline about the attack he said: ‘It was horrible and we’re all in total shock. My sister’s in bits, she’s lost her baby, and her son saw it all. He’s traumatised.

‘Teddy’s not a bad or dangerous dog. He’d been living at the house for months and was really good around my sister’s other three kids.

‘I think he was jealous when the new baby came along and all the attention he was getting. Or maybe he thought the baby was a toy, he was a tiny thing and only six pounds something when he was born.’

But the uncle from Rotherham, South Yorkshire – who declined to be named – admitted the open-topped pen in the garden which housed the animal was too low.

Showing MailOnline into the back garden and pointing to the structure, he said: ‘It’s much too low for him, he’s a big dog about three foot tall and they were making it higher. He didn’t live in the house he lived in the pen. He was shuttered in.’

The uncle, who had come to lay flowers at the scene and pay his respects, fought back tears, saying: ‘What happened is heartbreaking. I never even got to see my new nephew.’

Describing his sister’s ordeal, he said: ‘It’s your worst nightmare. She was upstairs on the toilet and Steve and my sister’s young lad were in the garden. The dog was in the pen and he suddenly jumped over the top and got free and went through the open door into a room downstairs where the baby was in a Moses basket. Then it attacked him. He may have thought it was a toy or a doll.

‘I don’t know the full details because they’re too upset to talk about ut. But the dog had never been any trouble before. It had been living there for some time. It was Steve’s daughter’s dog and when he split up with his partner she didn’t want to keep it so my sister took it on.

‘It was a big softie called Teddy and all the kids and adults cuddled it. Police have destroyed it now so that’s another loss.’

He told how most neighbours had been very supportive but ‘some locals have been giving my sister a lot of grief and blaming her for what happened.’

He added: ‘It wasn’t her fault or Steve’s but simply a tragic accident and her son witnessed the attack. It will effect them all forever. They’ll never get over it.

‘She’ll never be able to live here again. They’ll have to move away.’

Emergency crews raced to the scene but the baby was pronounced dead in hospital.  

Elon’s mother Abigail Ellis, 27, and her fiancé Stephen Joynes, 35, were later arrested by officers probing the tragic death.

Liverpool FC fan Joynes is the father of Elon, but not Ellis’s older three children.

Both were detained on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter and have now been bailed, pending further inquiries.

The dog has been taken by South Yorkshire Police and it is believed it will be destroyed.

Ellis’s brother Keith said Teddy jumped out of a pen in the garden that it was being kept in.

He said it was the third tragedy to beset Abigail in recent years, after she lost her dad and partner in the same house.

Mr Ellis said said: ‘She has been through so much, she needs time to grieve.

‘She has lost her dad, her partner and now her son in that house. 

‘The dog wasn’t in the house at the time, it was being kept in a pen in the garden.

‘He was such a big fluffy dog, he was like a teddy bear. His name was even Teddy.

‘You just wouldn’t expect it to do anything like that. He’s a big soft dog.’

A neighbour said Ellis’s partner Joel had died around 18 months ago.

Since then, she had struggled to come to terms with her loss, but was ‘overjoyed’ to be have been expecting a new baby.

Thee friend, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘Abi was a great mum, they never had much money but those kids never went without.

‘Her older children were so well behaved. I knew she was pregnant again but I didn’t know she had the baby until I heard all the commotion on Sunday evening and found out that he had tragically died.

‘She always did her best by her other children and losing her partner hit her hard. ‘It really affected her, they were so happy together and so close. It is such a tragedy.’

Samantha Foulds, who claims to be a close friend of the pair, also posted to Facebook: ‘I know these people well and I tell you it’s nothing more than a tragedy.

‘You have no idea what that family have gone through.

‘RIP little one, my love to you both and little ones at this heart wrenching time.’  

The baby was rushed to hospital with serious injuries after the attack in the village of Woodlands on Sunday – but he tragically died a short time later.

Sally Hooley, who saw the dog being taken away by police, said, according to The Mirror: ‘The dog was a big fluffy golden dog, it looked harmless at first glance. I couldn’t tell you the breed but three police officers were struggling to control it to get it into the dog van.

‘The dog was strong enough to be dragging three officers into the road. It’s so, so sad.’

‘It looked like a big fluffy harmless dog. At the end of the day the parents will never get over the loss of their child.’   

South Yorkshire Police rushed to a property in Woodlands at 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon following reports that a child had been attacked.

The baby was rushed to Doncaster Royal Infirmary with serious injuries after being bitten by the dog but died a short time later.  

Both parents have been bailed pending further inquires.

A police spokesman said police were called to an address around 3.30pm on Sunday following reports that a dog had attacked a child.

‘On arrival at the property, emergency services discovered a 12-day-old baby boy had been bitten by a dog and suffered serious injuries.

‘The child was taken to hospital, but sadly died a short time later.

‘A 35-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. They have now been bailed while enquiries continue.’

The dog has been removed from the address, the force added. 

Floral tributes have also been left outside the Doncaster property where the child was bitten.

A neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘I saw at least three police cars turn up, there was just lots of commotion, and more turned up.

‘Then someone came for the dog in a van and I saw forensic officers taking pictures of the scene.

‘That was when I knew it was serious.’

The neighbour said that they didn’t know the breed of the dog but that it was ‘very big’ and ‘not something you’d want around small children’.

They also said that the dog had a habit of running into other people’s gardens.