FORT WORTH -- A Tarrant County juvenile court judge ordered 18-month-old Chance Walker Jr. remain in foster care while he recovers from severe wounds to his face and head.
Four large dogs attacked him while his parents slept during the afternoon of January 30. It happened at the grandparent’s home near Lake Worth.
According to affidavits, the little boy crawled out of his playpen and through a doggy door into the yard.
CPS reported the mother tested positive for meth that day and that the father refused a drug test. Chance Walker Sr., 25, and Patricia Walker, 23, were jailed Thursday on a charge of injury to a child, second degree. So, they were not at Friday's custody hearing.
The boy's maternal grandmother said she warned her daughter the child was in danger.
"I kept telling my daughter that while her husband was sleeping all the time something is going to happen to that baby," said Dorena Lawson, child’s grandmother. "And she kept saying no it's not, no it's not. And I said how can you sleep and you're at work and you tell me nothing is going to happen? I mean, when you got a child you got to stay up with that child."
Investigators said the parents recklessly exposed their son to dogs they knew were aggressive.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family Protective Services said the toddler is improving, but will need more surgeries.
"We're very encouraged going forward that he's recovering," said Marissa Gonzales. "And we're hopeful he's going to be in the best place for him, and he's going to have a better life going forward."
CPS officials said Chance Walker Jr will stay in foster care for at least another sixty days, when there will be another custody hearing.
Four dogs were euthanized. They tested negative for rabies.
E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com
