Pit Bull Turns on Family, Attacks Girl, Mother

^{By Jessica Chen – Updated Friday, April 17, 2015 at 04:41 PM EDT}

Terrifying moments for a mom and daughter after their family dog turned on them and attacked. It happened in Bethel Thursday afternoon. Jessica Chen talks with the family about their scary ordeal.

BETHEL, N.Y. — The emotions are still raw as Trina Jenkins thinks back to those terrifying moments.

“I see red, it was blood, he was mutilating, like cutting a chicken, she was torn to pieces,” said Jenkins.

She said their family pet, 4-year-old Rush, simply started attacking her daughter, Charm, 5, Thursday afternoon.

Jenkins said it started when she heard screaming coming from the wooded area in their backyard. She said she ran through the wooded area and found her daughter, in a creek, getting mauled by their dog.

“I said he’s killing her, he was literally killing the child in front of me, so that’s when I jumped and I tried to pry his mouth apart,” said Jenkins.

After minutes of struggle, Jenkins said the dog eventually let go of the 5-year-old and started attacking her.

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Pit bull attacks mother, daughter; dog to be euthanized

^{By Fritz Mayer}

April 17, 2015 — Jamie Fico, who is six months pregnant, received an alarming surprise on the afternoon of April 16. She said, “The neighbor down the road came knocking on the door screaming. She doesn’t speak English very well. I came out to find out what’s going on and she tells me, ‘The dog bites in the woods.’ So now, I’m hearing about a dog bite, I’m pregnant, so I put my daughter in the car and I drive down there,” a short distance away from her Smallwood home.

“Then, the little girl from across the street comes out of the woods covered in blood, wounds all over her, literally from the neck down.” The five-year-old, named Charm, had been attacked by the family dog, a pit bull.

Asked if it was rare for a pit bull to turn on its family, Gerow said, “It’s not something that happens every day, but I will tell you that when these pit bulls go awry it seems that it becomes very significant, the attacks are profound. This is the fourth one that I’ve had involving a pit bull, and I call them maulings, the mom and the daughter were absolutely mauled. The little girl received close to 100 stitches, the mother received over 40. So I am fine with euthanizing this dog, I feel it’s the best thing for everybody, he’s a danger.”

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American Pit Bull Terrier

The American Pit Bull Terrier is, like all the ‘bully’ breeds, one of this group of descendants of the British ‘bull and terrier’ type fighting bulldogs. Once imported into the United States, it was bred up to be bigger again, and again used in baiting animals and in dogfighting. The American Kennel Club (founded 1884) was unwilling to register these fighting dogs, so in 1898 the United Kennel Club was founded specifically to register working pit-fighting dogs and to promote dogfighting. In order to be registered, a dog had to first win three pit fights^7,8,9. The American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) became a ‘breed’. As dogfighting declined in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, Colby (the most famous and prolific breeder of these dogs) began to search for a new market and began promoting the APBT as family pets^10,11. This despite the fact that his breeding lines included child killers¹².

The APBT is of medium intelligence, and it is athletic. They have plenty of energy and exuberance for life. They are affectionate companions are often referred to as a “nanny dog”, which leads many families to believe that they are suitable companions for children. Many can live happily with children and never have an issue, but there are many cases of the family pit bull suddenly attacking or killing a child in the household. The Pit Bull advocacy group BADRAP recently retracted their original “nanny dog” statements (https://www.facebook.com/BADRAP.org/posts/10151460774472399 )¹³. In 2013, in the United States, 16 children were killed by Pit Bulls and their mixes. Most of these children were killed by family pet pit bulls that had never been neglected or abused and had always loved the child. As with all breeds, the traits needed for their original tasks remain in the dogs – in this case, the sudden explosive aggression that was necessary to survive in the fighting pit. An APBT may never show this aggression, but if it does there will be no warning and the attack will not be easy to stop. Extreme caution should always be taken when this breed interacts with children. They are fun loving dogs that have “clownish” behaviors. Despite, their many positive qualities, this breed may not be suitable for everyone. Their high energy requires a family that can accommodate and appreciate this aspect of their personality. They usually do best with active families. Many American Pit Bull Terriers get calmer as they age and an older dog may work for a more reserved family.

In North America, from 1982-2014, Pit Bull breeds and mixes have seriously attacked 3,595 humans that resulted in 2,233 maimings and 307 deaths

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POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS DOG BREEDS

This is a list of dog breeds that have a history of being potentially dangerous to people, especially children. Daxton’s Friends for Canine Education and Awareness understands that any dog has the ability to bite or inflict serious harm to humans. This list consists of several dog breeds that have a higher than average number of recorded human fatalities. Please use extreme caution if you choose to bring one of these breeds into your home. Rental communities and homeowners insurance may restrict many of the dog breeds on this list due to the likelihood of a serious incident.

Pit Bulls, Mastiff, and Rottweiler lead in fatalities and are listed first. The rest of the breeds are listed in alphabetical order:

Pit Bull Terrier Family

Mastiffs

Doberman Pinscher

German Shepherd

Shar Pei

Siberian Husky

Wolf Hybrid

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One thought on “Family pit bull attacks 5-year-old in Bethel, NY (4/17/15)”

theyoushow April 20, 2015 at 7:44 pm

Lately, over these past few weeks, we have been seeing over and over and over the incidents, the attacks, the maulings of young babies and children..by their own “family pet pit dogs”. There must be a word to spread these news reports around so that nobody can say that they are clueless about the dangers of fighting-breed-dogs..and the deadly mix of “family pit” and family baby. This should be clear to everyone now, that the mix between a pit and a baby or child, is just as deadly as the mix between electricity and water. Water, being the gentle, unassuming element (like the 2 day old baby, just being a baby), that just flows, just does what it is supposed to do, until, just until that little bit of electricity (like that fighting-breed dog, the killer) comes along to thoroughly change the water and everything and everyone within arms’ length.

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