Pit bull bites, boy bites back
Categories: Health & safety, In the news, Pets
Usually the stories we hear of children being attacked by animals do not end well. This is not one of those.
An 11-year-old Brazilian boy named Gabriel Almeida has become of bit of a local celebrity not just for surviving a dog attack, but for the way he did it. He was playing in his uncle's back yard in the city of Belo Horizonte when a pit bull named Tita lunged at him and bit his arm. Almeida fought back with his only weapon: his teeth. He bit that dog right back, clamping down on its neck so hard he broke his own canine tooth.
"I grabbed him by the neck and bit," he says. "It's no big deal. It's better to lose a tooth than to lose your life."
After some nearby workers chased the dog away, Almeida went to the hospital for a couple of stitches. He's doing fine, but Tita, not so much. He was captured and is now living in the pound facing a possible death sentence.
An 11-year-old Brazilian boy named Gabriel Almeida has become of bit of a local celebrity not just for surviving a dog attack, but for the way he did it. He was playing in his uncle's back yard in the city of Belo Horizonte when a pit bull named Tita lunged at him and bit his arm. Almeida fought back with his only weapon: his teeth. He bit that dog right back, clamping down on its neck so hard he broke his own canine tooth.
"I grabbed him by the neck and bit," he says. "It's no big deal. It's better to lose a tooth than to lose your life."
After some nearby workers chased the dog away, Almeida went to the hospital for a couple of stitches. He's doing fine, but Tita, not so much. He was captured and is now living in the pound facing a possible death sentence.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michele W 7-26-2008 @ 3:53PM
It is such a shame that these dogs are being trained this way. These dogs in thier real nature are not agressive and are being turned into monsters by these sick people who are hungry for money in the dog fighting business. Any dog is mean if they are trained that way yet pitt bulls are taking a major beating . I am glad the kid is ok but yet I wish people would start helping pitt bulls instead of training them to be killers. I work at a well known no kill shelter in pittsburgh and we see alot of pitts in there. We have had one that has been almost adopted 5 times but everytime the people back out just because she is a pitt and she is the best and sweetest dog I ever seen. I took my six year old son with me one day and she ran over to my son and was just kissing him all over and wouldnt quit kissing him up. But since she is a pitt she probably will live the rest of her life in the shelter.
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Krystine 7-26-2008 @ 5:11PM
Mean dogs are mean, end of story. It's not training, it's in their genes. No one ever trained my parent's pitt bull to be mean, but he still ripped the throat out of their first son 35 years ago. It's nothing new, pitt bulls are just a mean breed.
Michele W 7-26-2008 @ 8:50PM
If you look back to what the breed was orig. bred for it was not to be mean. you can not catagorize a breed of dogs for what they are trained to do. I work with the ANIMAL WELFARE officers and go out in the field with them and I can tell you now that out of all the pitts we confiscated we only had to put not even half of them down. We rehabilitate them and they are adopted out and never had one caome back. Any dog is able to attack and it is not just a certain breed. Please know the facts before you are ready to attack a whole breed for something they are not responsable for. If you look at almost every case where a kid has been attacked by a pitt it was trained to be agressive. If they were all like that then we wouldnt be able to work with them and save them instead of putting them asleep cause the owner wanted to make money off of it. We have had pitts in the family and our kids grew up with them laying on them jumping on them and they are still here. my point just because it happened and it happens alot that is all you ever hear about is the pitts attack not any of the others that people get bit by.you cant damn a whole breed for what the people do to them and yes it is the people who do it to them.
Krystine 7-29-2008 @ 2:02AM
"yes it is the people who do it to them. " Really? *Shakes head in disbelief*
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Hazel 8-04-2008 @ 1:22AM
Be a responsible pet owner! Why would you let a child play in the yard with a breed of dog that you KNOW is subject to attacking. I am a pit owner. I let NO ONE in the yard with my dogs. Just because they are my pets does not mean they won't attack someone else. They could even turn on me, and I know this. But that is a risk I am willing to take. What gives me the right to take that risk with someone else? So, who should 'really' be punished, the dog or the owner?
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jan 9-17-2008 @ 5:41AM
i totally agree... pitbulls are a mean breed.. it is the hey look at me ain't i tough owners that make it worse!
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