Baby girl mauled to death by family dog in Australia

A one-year-old baby girl has been killed after her family dog viciously attacked her.

The rottweiler dog mauled the infant child at her home in the Australian town of Inverell, New South Wales. Emergency crews were called to the remote town at around 2pm on Saturday (3 March) where they discovered the baby with serious injuries.

"On arrival officers found the child suffering critical injuries," a NSW police statement reads, according to news.com.au. "She was treated at the scene but sadly died on the way to hospital."

The dog has since been taken by Gwydir Shire Council after it was found still in the family home's backyard. New England Police District investigators are looking into the incident and a coroner will prepare a report.

Inverell has a population of just over 11,000 people and is around 500km north west of Sydney.

In similar news coming out of Texas, two women have been arrested in connection with the death of their four-year-old boy, who was mauled to death by family dogs. The boy's mangled body was found in the backyard of a home in El Paso.

Brittany Brooks, 27, and Ashley Brooks, 29, were arrested at a family member's home and charged with injury to a child, a second-degree felony, KFOX14 reported.

Police say that Jacob Brooks was left in an enclosed trampoline in the backyard of the home on 27 July, the New York Daily News reported. The boy was attacked by a pack of "aggressive" family dogs.

Neighbour Ramon Payan told the El Paso Times that the dogs "practically ate" the youngster. According to KVIA Channel 7, a neighbour attempted to rescue the boy during the attack. Sebastian Hernandez said his brother scaled the yard fence in an attempt to reach the boy. He was able to remove a dog, which then proceeded to try to bite him as well.

When emergency responders reached the home, Jacob was dead.