The six-year-old boy mauled to death by two dogs after being dropped off before school has been identified as tributes pour in from his heartbroken family.
Loyalty Charles Scott died after being attacked by two Great Dane-mastiff mixes in the garage of the Portland, Oregon, home of a family friend. His grandma had dropped him there before school.
The two dogs behind the attack were put down although one was identified as the primary aggressor. Both dogs were unlicensed. A third dog found in the home was also taken by Multnomah County Animal Services.
The homeowner had gone into the garage when the boy was inside the house. Police say the woman told them that the boy opened the garage door and the dogs charged him. It was unclear as of Tuesday whether she will face any criminal charges.
Loyalty was a student at the Glenfair Elementary School in the Reynolds School District.
Writing in a fundraiser set up to help support the boy's grandma, who looked after him, a family member wrote: "Loyalty touched so many hearts. He always had a smile on his face and there was no way anyone could be in a bad mood around him.
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"He loved everyone and everything. He was so pure and unaffected by the negatives in the world. He definitely changed my outlook on life and made this world so beautiful!"
The family has been left devastated by the boy's death. The fundraiser, which is signed by 'The Scott Family,' reads: " For right now though, we are all just trying to make sense of things. Also with Christmas looming on the horizon, she’s also got to figure out how to make her 9 other grandkids’ Christmas as special as possible. Right now, all she can focus on is figuring out how to breathe. "
Commenting on the fundraiser, a school counsellor wrote: "Loyalty was and will always be the funniest, sweetest, most special and charismatic boy. I am so sorry for your heartbreak, grandma, sisters, auntie, and everyone who loved and continues to love him."
According to the family, the Portland Police Department have said they will pay for the funeral arrangements.
The money raised by the fundraiser will go to support the grandma and give her a chance to "to stay home for a bit and walk through this with her family and take care of the other two babies that are counting on her to show them that they are all going to be ok (eventually)."
According to stats from injury lawyers Fuicelli & Lee, there are 4.5 million dog bites that occur each year, and at least half them are on children.
From 2010 to October 2023 there were 478 fatal dog attacks with over half of them coming from pitbulls or pitbull mixes.
Most of the country's fatal dog attacks occur in California and Texas.
Only five registered by the lawyers in this period happened in Oregon.