Baby Bitten To Death By Pet Rat As Parents Slept Near Him In Car

ANAHEIM, Calif. - A homeless family's pet rat killed their infant son as they slept in their car one-quarter mile from Disneyland, police said yesterday.

Authorities said 4-month-old Steven James Giguere bled to death after the pet hooded rat, which apparently was loose in the car, bit the child more than 110 times on his left arm and hand.

The domestic white rat also nipped an Orange County animal-control officer as he tried to capture it, officials said. The animal was put to death and subsequent tests showed it had consumed blood.

The child's parents, Steven Giguere, 27, and his wife, Kathyleen, 30, both transients, were arrested on one count each of felony child endangerment, Anaheim police Lt. Vince Howard said. Bail was set at $10,000 each.

A second child, a 3 1/2-year-old daughter, was placed in protective custody, Howard said.

"You would think the baby would be crying (from the repeated bites). You would expect the baby cried a great deal," said Chief Deputy Coroner Jim Beisner, who has worked for Orange County 33 years. "Everybody here is shocked and angry. . . . I have never seen anything like this before. Never, never."

Howard said the couple had been living in their 1972 Ford station wagon with their two children and pet rat in a public trailer park when the incident occurred.

The couple, who told police they had been asleep, called for an ambulance at 3:30 a.m. Thursday and reported their son no longer was

breathing, Howard said. Police arrived and attempted to perform CPR, but the infant already was dead.

Lt. Bill Donald, a county animal-control officer, said it was doubtful the rat had rabies. Rat experts contacted yesterday expressed surprise about the attack, saying that it was unlikely behavior for a domestic rat that could only be explained if the animal was starving.