O.C. Baby Bitten to Death by Pet Rat, Officials Say

A 4-month-old baby boy, who was living in a station wagon along with his homeless parents, bled to death in his sleep from bites inflicted by the family’s pet rat, stunned authorities said Friday.

The body of Steven J. Giguere Jr. was found Thursday morning in the back seat of the car with more than 60 bites on the left forearm and hand inflicted by the half-pound adult brown bar rat that officials said had not been fed in several days.

Investigators arrested the child’s parents--Steven James Giguere Sr., 27, and Kathyleen Giguere, 30, on suspicion of felony child endangerment, as officials expressed astonishment and alarm over what happened.

“This is the richest nation in the world and we have something like this happening,” said Dr. Richard Evans, the chief of veterinary services for the County Health Care Agency. “It’s a disgusting indictment on our civilization, but it happens.”

“I don’t want hysteria” about pet rats, said Evans, who performed a necropsy on the cream-colored rodent. “We’re dealing with an animal that already had a problem. And what happened was appropriate behavior for the rat’s brain, which is, ‘I’m hungry.’ ”

Evans said the animal, which has a high metabolic rate, apparently was not fed in the past two days and had traces of the infant’s skin and blood in its stomach.

The rat was running free inside the car, which had been parked in the parking lot of a camping supply store, police said. The infant’s mother awoke about 2 a.m. and realized the child was not breathing as he lay next to her in the back seat of the station wagon, said Lt. Vince Howard.

An autopsy later Thursday morning showed that the child bled to death because of severe bites, said Deputy Coroner Bill King.

The infant’s 3-year-old sister, Karissa, was also sleeping in the car, which was in the parking lot in the 800 block of South West Street. No one else in the car was bitten, police said. It’s not known why the rat did not bite the others.

Steven and Kathyleen Giguere were being held in the Anaheim City Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail each, police said. Investigators said they expected to present their case to the district attorney’s office on Monday.

Police transported Karissa to Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange.

Coroner’s officials said they have additional questions about the death.

“I would think that the kid would be screaming because we’re talking about sharp teeth on the arm and that’s got to wake you up,” King said. “At this point, there is no explanation about why the family was not aroused” by the child or the rat, King said.

Authorities were waiting for results of a toxicological test to see if the child had any drugs in his system when he died, King said. The doctor who performed the autopsy Thursday did not see any evidence that the child had been bitten before Thursday or previously abused, King said.

Dennis Giguere, 53, the child’s grandfather, and his wife, Dianne Giguere, 47, lamented the death in an interview from their home in La Mirada. They said they learned more about the young couple’s life on the streets in conversations with them since the death.

They learned that the couple had run out of money and occasionally begged on the streets and were living in the car.

According to the child’s grandparents, Steven and Kathyleen Giguere were evicted in July from their apartment in Anaheim. Since then, the young family had been living out of their 1971 station wagon, which was stuffed with clothes and a cooler, he said.

Steven Giguere quit his job at a Tustin business that manufactured exercise equipment last year, company officials said. He occasionally worked as a mechanic. Kathyleen Giguere did not work but was receiving about $700 each month from welfare and other programs, Dianne Giguere was told.

Dennis Giguere said he regularly lent money to the couple and admonished his son to find steady work.

“You can’t raise kids inside a car,” he said he told his son. “I told him about life and told him he has to get some type of trade or career. But he would not listen.”

Someone gave Steven Giguere the rat, named Homer, about a year ago, Dennis Giguere said. He said the rat was one of his son’s prized possessions. The rat had a cage, but would regularly escape in the car and eventually the couple stopped trying to catch the rodent, he said.

Dennis Giguere lamented his grandson’s death Friday. “We thought rock bottom was when they were evicted from their apartment. We hope they will learn from this.”

Dianne Giguere, the child’s grandmother, said: “I hope the court doesn’t let them go away light, like with some small jail sentence. They deserve more. At least some jail time. . . . It’s just a case of neglect and being dumb.”

Veterinarians said that the Anaheim case is a rarity with domesticated rats, which they described as generally clean and intelligent rodents that usually eat plants or seeds.

“Man, that’s weird,” said Dr. Scott Weldy of the El Toro Animal Hospital, a veterinarian who specializes in pets such as rats. “Rats can be aggressive, they have been known to gnaw through lead pipes, but that is kind of bizarre. That is very abnormal behavior.”

Dr. Mark Langdorf, an assistant clinical professor in the department of emergency medicine at UC Irvine, called the death “insane” and “inconceivable.”

“The kid should cry at the first bite,” said Langdorf. “I can’t believe that this would happen.”

Experts said that rats, usually wild ones, have been reported to bite humans, causing injury or death.

Evans, who performed the necropsy, said he has read reports of rats biting and killing toddlers in housing projects in Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami.

“Rodents who are starved eat anything they can get,” said Evans. “Essentially, what you had was a ravenous animal.”