A Florida father was arrested after using his dog to baby sit his young child while he went to a local bar.

Police arrested 41-year-old James Irvine on Nov. 30 on charges of child neglect for leaving his 10 month old baby in the care of a pit bull.

Irvine was left alone with the child when his girlfriend departed for work. Instead of staying with the child, he allegedly left to go to a bar near his home in northeastern Florida.

The child's mother feared something was wrong when she was unable to reach her boyfriend at home. When she was finally able to get a hold of him on his cellphone he told her, "I'm watching the game," and then hung up, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

The mother returned home and found the pit bull calmly sitting outside of the room where the baby had been shut inside. She found the child left in an unchanged diaper. Irvine later returned and tried to get back into the house, which was locked. He apparently tried to get in through the garage with no luck and urinated on himself, according to the report.

The girlfriend called police, who found Irvine outside and promptly arrested him for leaving the child by itself. The father claimed that the child wasn't left alone as the pit bull was watching the infant.

When police went to the bar where Irvine had spent his night, they found out that he had skipped on his bar tab from six beers that he was supposed to have returned to pay.

Irvine was arrested and taken to the Flagler County Inmate Facility. He was later released on a $1,500 bail bond.

Tags
Child neglect, Dogs