LAKE ELSINORE -- Jennifer Ruckel never saw it coming, she said on a recent afternoon. One minute she was sitting on her bed talking to her sister Robin, laughing and watching her 18-month-old son Taylor dance on the rug at their feet -- the next, their 30 seconds of terror began.

With no provocation or warning, the family's 5-year-old pit bull, Molly, suddenly lunged across the room and grabbed Taylor's head in its jaws and began shaking the boy like a rag doll.

"The dog just snapped; it changed from a protective, loving dog to a beast within a second," Jennifer said of the March 31 attack.

Robin threw a cup of hot coffee on the dog. Jennifer began pounding on the animal from behind, desperately trying to get her to let go, the woman said. The dog's lower jaw was clamped on the back of the boy's head, its upper jaw locked onto his face next to his ear and neck and it continued to shake the boy.

Finally, the dog loosened her grip for a split second, letting go of Taylor, and Jennifer threw herself on top of the toddler as the dog continued to lunge and dig beneath her body to get at the child.

The whole incident lasted perhaps 30 seconds, Robin said. "But it seemed like 30 years."

Another sister, Lindsey, came running into the room and helped Jennifer pick up the child. Robin said she grabbed Molly by her choke collar and held her off long enough for Jennifer to get out of the room with Taylor.

As she pulled the dog outside the Lake Elsinore home, Lindsey called 911, but no one answered, Robin said.

Adding to their panic, Taylor was bleeding profusely. "Jennifer was covered in blood and I thought we could lose this little guy," Robin said.

When they couldn't get a response from 911, the women jumped in the car and rushed the child to Inland Valley Medical Center's emergency room in Wildomar.

Doctors gave Taylor a strong sedative before applying 30 stitches to his face and neck and using four staples to patch his torn scalp, Jennifer said. Doctors said that one of the wounds was just fractions of an inch from the boy's jugular vein.

Animal-control officers later took Molly to Animal Friends of the Valleys shelter in Lake Elsinore, where she is to be euthanized after a 10-day quarantine period, Jennifer said.

Although the family could choose other options, such as keeping the dog in a kennel, where it would never again have contact with their child, Jennifer said she and Taylor's dad really have no choice but to have the dog killed.

"Just thinking of the dog staying alive and that it could bite another child, I couldn't live with the guilt," she said.

One week after he was mauled, Taylor sat on his mom's knee, playing with his food and listening to a conversation he didn't fully understand. But he seemed to perceive what was being talked about. "Dog," he said, without a trace of rancor or fear on his face.

But his mother said the boy's father, her fiance, Brandon Reynolds, 24, had taken Taylor to a friend's home a day earlier, and the family had a large dog in the house.

"He latched onto his dad's leg, crying, not wanting to even walk by the dog," Jennifer said.

The Ruckel's experience was terrifying, but the outcome was better than that of many similar pit-bull attacks. In June 2003, a pit bull mauled and killed 2-year-old Somer Clugston. A baby-sitter had left the dog unattended inside a Good Hope home with the child, while she went to run some errands. The woman later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Deaths related to pit-bull attacks are not uncommon.

A compilation of statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on fatal dog attacks on human beings shows that American pit bull terriers, or pit bulls, have the worst record of any breed. Between 1979 and 1996, there were 60 fatal attacks across the country by pit bulls on humans. The second-worst record was for rottweilers, with 29 fatal attacks, followed by German shepherds with 19.

An official with the Humane Society of the United States said Friday that breeds are selectively bred to accentuate specific characteristics. In the case of some retrievers, for example, the dogs were bred over the years to leap into the water at a moment's notice, retrieve downed birds and carry them softly in their mouths back to hunters.

Pit bulls, however, were bred to fight other dogs in closed environments such as pits or arenas, said Eric Sakach, director of the West Coast regional office of the Humane Society of the United States.

"They were selectively bred to cause maximum damage, which includes grabbing, holding and shaking, which causes tearing," Sakach said.

Breeders also gradually eliminated from the animals some of the typical signals of coming aggression, like barking, growling or raising the hair on the back of their necks, he added.

"These animals offer little or no indication that an attack is imminent," he said.

In some parts of the world and this country, certain breeds of dog -- including pit bulls -- have been outlawed.

Denver County, Colo., for example, has an ordinance prohibiting the breed. If someone is caught with a pit bull there, they are issued a citation and required to sign an affidavit promising to remove the dog from the county and not bring it back. Animal-control officers later return to the owners' residence to make sure they have gotten rid of the dog.

Sakach said that such laws are shortsighted, however. When communities outlaw pit bulls, the first people targeted are the ones that obey the law and have their dogs licensed. Since their names and addresses are on record, they are easy to find, he said. As a result, it's the unlicensed dogs that are left in the community.

"If you outlaw pit bulls, only the outlaws will have them," he said, adding that the real solution to the problem boils down to owner responsibility.

"These laws fail to acknowledge that there are many well-behaved, responsibly kept pit bulls out there," Sakach said.

In the aftermath of the attack, Taylor's family is left with a mix of feelings: guilt for allowing such a dangerous animal near Taylor; relief that the boy survived; and anxiety over what might have happened.

When Jennifer first found out she was pregnant with Taylor, her parents tried to convince her that she and her fiance should get rid of Molly, she said. But because Reynolds had raised the dog since she was 8 weeks old and she had never showed any signs of aggressive behavior, they decided not to heed her parents' advice.

Now, she said, she has to live with that decision.

"My son almost lost his life because of a decision I made," Jennifer said, her eyes welling up with tears. "You always wish you had listened to your parents -- after the fact. I am just lucky I got a second chance."

Learn more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that every year, 4.7 million people suffer dog bites. In 2001, 368,245 people were treated for dog bites, and 42 percent of those were children 14 years and younger. To protect yourself and others from dog bites, the CDC recommends the following:

• Never approach a strange dog

• Never pet a dog -- even your own -- without letting it see and sniff you first

• Never turn your back to a dog and run away

• Don't disturb a dog while it is eating, chewing on a toy or caring for puppies

• Always assume that a dog who doesn't know you may see you as a threat

• Teach children not to chase or tease dogs they know and to avoid dogs they don't know

If you are approached by a dog that may attack you, follow these steps:

• Never scream and run

• Remain motionless, hands at your sides and avoid eye contact with the animal

• If the dog does attack, "feed" him your jacket, purse, bicycle or anything that you can put between yourself and the dog.

• If you fall or are knocked to the ground, curl into a ball with your hands over your ears and remain motionless. Try not to scream or roll around.

Source: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.