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Woman loses finger in pit bull attack Print E-mail

JESSE OWENS

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Joel and Roseanne McNarland were driving to church last Friday night when they saw what appeared to be a sad sight: a dog had been hit by a car and was injured on the walking path along 21 Avenue SE.

 

Roseanne told her husband to drive up to the scene. As they approached, they saw a man repeatedly hitting the dog with a snow shovel.

"He must be putting the dog out of his misery," thought Joel.

But as they neared, it became apparent that the dog, a pitbull, had a smaller dog that looked like a Shih Tsu in his mouth, while a woman with blood covered hands desperately tried to separate the two.

The couple stopped and Roseanne instructed her husband to do something. Joel had no weapons handy and wasn't sure what to do, but fortunately four people soon showed up with hockey sticks and shovels. Joel grabbed one of the sticks and, along with the four other people, started hammering the pitbull. They beat the dog for what seemed like a lifetime, but to no avail. He wouldn't budge.

Then a gentleman with a goalie stick came up and delivered a mighty blow that fazed the dog enough for the smaller dog to escape. The pitbull backed away from the crowd and calmed down while two men cared for the injured woman. After administering first aid to her hands, one of the men told the crowd that one of her fingers was bitten clean off.

The group of people began looking for the severed digit, which Roseanne found hidden in the grass. She ran across the street to a house and put the finger in a bag full of ice until paramedics arrived.

Meanwhile, the pitbull was forced into a nearby garage and locked in until police officers arrived. The small dog that was mauled by the pitbull was covered in blood, but was still alive when it was taken to the vet.

As for the woman, the McNarlands say she was in so concerned about her Shih Tsu that she didn't even notice her finger was bitten off. The News tried to contact the injured woman, but was unable to by press time on Monday.

None of the people at the scene had seen the pitbull before, but one of them stated that another pitbull was roaming around earlier in the evening. Until she is assured that there are no more pitbulls on the loose, Roseanne plans to keep her own dogs away from that area.





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1. 20-03-2008 12:11

Breeds
I had a dog that came from a line of ratters. His ancestors were used to smell out rats and shake them to death by the neck. Did we teach OUR dog to do this? No. But he still shook his stuffed toys by the neck until he felt they had died. Dogs do what come instinctively to them. If a certain breed (Pitbull or not) is instinctively mean or vicious, it can retreat to those behaviours durnig its life or display certain actions at any time. So please stop telling everyone it has nothing to do with the breed.  
Btw, it's in the news because a woman lost a FINGER! It was a violent attack!!
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2. 19-03-2008 09:32

Loser dog owners
Unfortunately, once again, man has let down yet another innocent Pit Bull. After all, who
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3. 19-03-2008 04:26

pit bulls
I wouldn't want to own a high risk dog like a pitbull or german shepherd, it is not worth the risk of someone getting hurt. I think people with tiny dogs have to take precautions when walking their dog somewhere that a big dog would attack it and it happens a lot. My own personal experience with one pit bull who came to me while I was on an early morning walk all by myself was that it came up to me and I was terrified and it left without hurting me...they are to be handled with caution and shouldn't be allowed to be loose.Pit bull owners and dog walkers use common sense and caution.
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4. 18-03-2008 19:33

Beating up on dogs
Now why is this story in the news at all? I've read lots of stories of large dogs killing small dogs. I've heard of it happening with German Shepherds, Mastiffs, huskies. All kinds of large dogs kill small dogs, and not always without a good reason. It is rarely newsworthy. This story is in the news only because some self-appointed breed expert identified the dog as a "pit bull". The one thing that these stories have in common is that someone was beating the dog with a shovel, bat, or shooting the dog. I wonder was the finger bitten off before or after they started abusing the dog?
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5. 18-03-2008 19:11

Dog attack, not "pit bull" attack
I am sorry for the woman and her dog, but I object to the repeated use of "pit bull". There is no such breed of dog; what is commonly misnomered a "pit bull" is usually a crossed breed or mixed breed dog - also known as a mongrel or mutt. 
 
A roaming dog of any breed or type is indicative of irresponsible dog ownership. The human - the dog's owner - is at fault for this incident, not the dog.
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Monday, 17 March 2008
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