Last week in a Tucson neighborhood, as a 14-year-old boy on a skateboard was being pulled along a sidewalk by his leashed Pit Bull, a teenage girl across the street was trying to walk her black Lab, but having difficulty keeping him under control.
The moment the Lab saw the Pit Bull, he broke free and started biting the boy and his dog. The boy suffered eight puncture wounds on his fingers and hands, according to Tucson News Now, which didn’t mention the Pit Bull’s condition.
“I think if a dog is mean enough to break a leash, break free from a leash and attack another dog while walking with a kid…I don’t know,” Zack Marcus, the boy’s dad, told Tucson News Now. “I love dogs, but that’s a bad dog.”
When police officers finally arrived, Marcus said they were more interested in what the Lab’s owner had to say about the incident. Fortunately a surveillance camera on a nearby house captured the entire attack. The Lab can be seen being pulled away by his back legs, his teeth still clamped on the Pit Bull’s face.
“To me that screams education and responsible pet ownership,” Justin Gallick of the Pima Animal Care Center told Tucson News Now. “From my understanding, a pet was being walked by somebody that’s underage and maybe didn’t have the physical capacity to walk such a dog.”
The Lab was taken away by animal control and is under a rabies quarantine for 10 days. He will be given a dangerous dog evaluation. If he is found to be dangerous, he and his owner may have to comply with strict confinement, licensing and insurance requirements. If the owner can’t meet those requirements, the Lab could be euthanized.
The story by Tucson News Now, one of the only news sources reporting the incident, starts with this:
“A local dog attack involving a pit bull – but this incident doesn’t start or end the way one might think.”
Oh, because based on negative stereotypes, one might think the Pit Bull was the aggressor?
The headline reads, “Local boy, pit bull attacked by neighbor’s dog,” not bothering to mention the breed of the attacking dog. But Tucson News Now does deserve props for covering the story at all.
“I have Pit Bulls, big ones,” Marcus said. “And we get the bad rap because of the Pit Bull. My dog’s never done that.”