Posted on 03/10/2003 10:35:10 AM PST by lavaroise
Armed Neighbors End Dog Attacks By SEAN C. LEDIG sledig@tampatrib.com Published: Feb 1, 2003
TAMPA - Teresa Castellano knows that some folks saved her life. She just doesn't know who they are. Castellano, 25, her daughter, Alysa McBride, 6, and her daughter's friend, Kaitlyn Green, 8, survived a recent attack from two Rottweilers and a pit bull.
It is an amazing story of horror and heroism.
Castellano said it began while she was watching the girls at Kaitlyn's home on Jan. 18. Kaitlyn's father, Sean Green, had stepped out for 10 minutes to run an errand.
Castellano, of Land O' Lakes, said she and the girls laughed at something on television, and that apparently sparked the dogs to start barking and growling. She soon realized the dogs were not playing, and she sensed it might get worse.
She asked the girls to quiet down so the dogs would relax.
It never happened.
The dogs attacked.
``When [the Rottweilers] saw the fear, one of them started biting Kaitlyn,'' Castellano said. ``I told them to stop screaming because they were making the dogs upset.''
Castellano said she laid on the girls to try and protect them from the dogs. She then tried to block the dogs to give the girls a chance to escape to a bedroom.
Nothing was working. The Rottweilers were going wild.
So Castellano and the girls bolted outside the house at 8126 Bay Drive. The girls ran to safety in a neighbor's house while Castellano distracted the dogs. The pit bull, Petey, joined in the attack.
The commotion outside attracted the attention of neighbors and a motorist passing by.
John M. Anderson and his wife were in their car and leaving a friend's house nearby when they passed by and saw three dogs attacking Castellano, according to a Hillsborough County sheriff's report. Anderson drove into the driveway and began blasting the horn and yelling out the window, trying to scare the dogs and allow Castellano to get into the car.
It seemed to work. The dogs stopped biting Castellano, but she couldn't make it to his car.
Anderson, 22, was about to get out of his car when he looked over his shoulder and saw a man toting a pistol. He kept honking his horn and sped away to get his friend, Justin Turner, who lived nearby.
The man with gun was Winston H. Harr, a next-door neighbor. He had heard screaming outside and grabbed his Kimber .45-caliber pistol. His wife, Deborah, came, too.
Harr said he saw Anderson's car moving back and forth in the driveway, and three dogs attacking a woman. Harr fired three shots into the ground to try and scare the dogs. They screamed at the dogs, but it didn't seem to matter. Deborah Harr called the dogs by name, and they stopped momentarily.
Then, without warning, the dogs charged at Harr. The pit bull bit him on the leg before Harr trained his pistol and fired, hitting the dog in the head. He also fired at one of the Rottweilers, and it fell to the ground.
Harr, a librarian's assistant at Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library near Carrollwood, said he fired the rest of his bullets at the third dog, and it seemed to back away. He bolted for his house for more ammunition and a flashlight.
Turner, who had heard the screams and was told by Anderson of the attacking dogs, grabbed his Glock .40-caliber pistol and ran to the scene. He was told there were three dogs, and only one was dead.
Turner, 33, told deputies he positioned himself between the wounded Castellano and the Rottweilers. When one of the dogs made a move toward him, he fired. Deputies believe it was his bullet that wounded the dog.
At that point, both Rottweilers retreated into the house.
Also arriving at the scene was neighbor George Lease, a Tampa police detective. Carrying his 9mm pistol, he found Harr and Turner at the house with their guns.
While Deborah Harr and Anderson comforted Castellano, the three armed neighbors searched the house and found the dogs, one wounded and on a couch and other other laying on the living room floor.
The wounded Rottweiler was euthanized later that night at Florida Veterinary Specialists, said Dennis McCullough, an investigator for Hillsborough County Animal Services.
The other Rottweiler was placed under quarantine at Animal Services until Wednesday, when it was euthanized.
Alysa was released from St. Joseph's Hospital on Jan. 26; Castellano remained hospitalized this week due to infections from the bites. Both mother and daughter needed more than 100 stitches each to close the wounds on their bodies.
Kaitlyn's injuries required 20 stitches, said her mother, Jennifer Harvey of Town 'N Country.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said no one will be charged in the incident.
For Castellano, she said she doesn't know who fired the shots that spared her from the dogs.
``I thank them with all my heart. They saved my life.''
Reporter Sean C. Ledig can be reached at (813) 901-9109.
Isn't it strange how people, states and animals tend to remain calm for a while, and then, when the victim is weak and "provokes" an attack by laughing at TV, they suddenly attack for no particular sane reason.... beware, keep your guns.
I dearly miss my mini-pins. :o(
You seem to be trying to make some point here, but I'll be hanged if I know what it is.
IMO, it is NUTS to have one of these dogs in your home. You read about these random attacks with fair regularity. It used to be that people would dismiss them saying "these were dogs who were trained to kill," except that you see it with "family pets" as often as not.
We had a friend whose daughter almost died after being attacked by a Rottweiler years ago. The owner refused to get rid of the dog, and for some reason at that time (this was some years ago, in Alabama) the authorities couldn't do anything about it.
So one day, the father took care of it himself, with a bullet through the dogs brain early one morning, about 4:30, when no one was there to witness it.
It was a sad, inexplicable death of a "beloved family pet."
How he was missed.
I love dogs but my neighbors rottweillor chased my kids and wife through my yard once to many times. I wanted to shoot it but my other neighbor filed a lawsuit when his kid got nipped and the dog vanished the next day.
I miss them terribly.
We don't even have good statistics on how many Rottweilers and pit bulls are victims of this senseless gun violence every day in America, but I'll bet it's at least 50.
Yep, 50 little doggy lives wasted in this senseless gun violence, every day.
If they can only catch the bastards that shot them, maybe we can imprison them and take the off the street permanently.
(/major sarcasm)
Curiously, I am anti-bow. No archery or ribbons-on-gifts are allowed around me.
So when a liberal keeps saying "they have no guns in Europe, that is why it is safe there", you have to ask yourself the question: what about the Nazi and communist crimes? What about if the US did not exist? Would it still be safe there? It's inevitable that a state of virtual colonization by a minority and preferential treatment of certain people in arbitrary manners because of some elite status or some "educational" level, leads invariably to this kind of scene where a trusted dog, a trusted state or a trusted provider viewing another one as an inferior can turn against it in most violent and sudden manners, without specific explanation. Truth is a two way street and requires effort and recognition from everyone. People cannot remain too long as gods of the truth safely, no matter what their educational or scientific achievement is. Science only applies deterministicaly to things, not to people, lest superstition becomes the norm, IMO.
A librarian with a gun? Well ... good thing he had it.
You can have Rotties or Pit Bulls, but if you have a good one, the small children can bite it and it won't even growl back. If it ever so much as growls at a family member, it shoud be put down.
Mr. Green needs to lose custody of his daughter before he gets her killed.
So9
Unfortunately this method does not discriminate between good dogs and bad.
So9
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