Posted on 08/02/2005 11:09:28 AM PDT by Chester A. Arthur
Ky. Girl Survives Losing Scalp In Pit Bull Attack
Child In Stable Condition; Scalp Found In Dog's Stomach
HODGENVILLE, Ky. -- A 4-year-old Kentucky girl is lucky to be alive after a gruesome attack by the family's pit bull.
The attack happened Monday night at the child's home in Hodgenville, in Larue County, Louisville television station WLKY reported.
As Emily Page Stinnett remains in stable condition at Louisville's Kosair Children's Hospital, Larue County Sheriff Bobby Shoffer struggles to remember an attack as gruesome as Monday's.
"It's the worst I've seen in my 17 years of law enforcement," he said.
Shoffer added that when he and his colleagues responded to the Stinnet's home, they saw a blood-spattered doghouse in the backyard, Miller reported. And the pit bull hadn't seemed to calm down since the attack. The deputies then took action.
"When we got at the scene, the child was in the backyard just a few feet from the dog," Shoffer said. "EMS was called, and they responded. The dog apparently was still aggressive and it wouldn't let EMS near the child, so the dog had to be put down."
Stinnett and another girl were swinging on the swingset with the pit bull chained and staked just 7 feet away, WLKY-TV reported.
Shoffer said something provoked the dog, and it snapped, pulling its stake as it lunged at the girl and biting her face just above the eyebrow.
"I guess you would say she was more or less scalped," Shoffer said. "She had some puncture wounds to her stomach."
According to Shoffer, the dog then dragged the little girl around the yard as she screamed for help. Her stepmother ran to Emily's aid, but the dog would not let her near the little girl. According to investigators, the stepmother took off in her car to get a neighbor to help rescue little the girl.
"These dogs are unpredictable," Shoffer said. "The least little thing ... the dog could be happy one minute, and the next minute they go absolutely crazy. Anybody that has young children (needs) to make sure the dog is chained or properly fenced in."
Once the girl was transported to Kosair, doctors there told the sheriff that child's hair and scalp had to be found and delivered or she would die. Shoffer said he had to cut the dog's stomach open to find the scalp, which was then rushed to the hospital, WLKY reported.
Family members told WLKY that the doctors reattached the majority of the scalp, but added that the girl still might face more surgeries.
Personally, I think pit bull owners with children should consider staffordshire terriers instead. They look similar, but the staffordshires are nothing but slobbering mushballs.
Sigh.... Did it ever occure to you that they were chained up because they were Mean, and not the other way around?
"STEP-mom took off in car " left her there. Can't imagin leaving the child, I'd find a way to kill the dog,get close enough to spray him with a chemical spray, hot water, anything to grab child . These dogs should not be allowed to breed. Wonder what real MOM is going to say about this.
However, your story is exactly what I have seen too! Any breed of dog is capable of attacking children. Pits and Boxers are just very strong in their jaws and are a large breed. Crossing any dog's breed of blood line too early, stupid pet owners, mean pet owners, and sometimes just the inherent nature of the individual animal can cause it to attack without provocation. When people chain any dog for a long enough period of time, that dog will lose it mentally: either becoming unapproachably vicious (other than the person that feeds and waters them) or unbelievably timid and meek. As with humans, it breaks their spirit and is almost always irreversible.
Land Sharks.
As with having children, as well as with having dogs (especially large breeds), there are some adults that should not be allowed to attempt to raise and/or care for either.
Some the pro-pit bull commentary here sounds like a liberal excusing a terrorist because the terrorist's victim was negligent or annoyed the terrorist.
Man I hate these dogs!!!
Alternate mantra:
It's not the dog, it's the owner.
Excellent post.
It's horrifying just reading about it. I can't imagine what the little girl went through. It's amazing she is alive.
You can't raise a Irish Setter to have the tremendous jaw strength of a pit bull, any more than you can raise a Dachshund to run like a Greyhound. People seem to miss the point that the biggest problem with pit bulls isn't temperament (apart from the many that have been trained to be vicious, due to the popularity of the breed with lowlifes who train their dogs to be vicious), but the physical power of their jaws. Most dogs can be unexpectedly set off by something, and bite someone, but when that happens, the person getting bitten is a lot better off if the dog is something other than a pit bull.
Are you looking for logic in the actions of a mother who lets her 4 year old play with a pit bull?
While I don't agree with groovychick's analysis of pit bulls, your statement doesn't hold water in the real world either. If you don't believe me, call any big city animal control department and ask them. The kind of people who own these dogs, in particular, are not responsible people who take the time and effort to train ad socialize their dogs. The feed them and provide them with water sporadically, and if the hungry neglected animal who's never been house-trained pees on the rug, or tries to grab a bite of food from a human who's lying in front of the TV gorging him/herself, the dog is declared bad and tied up more of less permanently. This usually happens well before the dog is full grown.
And then there are the people who get the dog for "security", and intend from the start to have it tied up in the yard all the time (fed and watered sporadically, of course), since they can't be bothered or afford to maintain a fence capable of containing a large dog, nor could their neighbors or their own children (who've usually been trained about as well as the dog) be counted on not to open the gate and let the dog out.
This story just sounds too bazaar to be true. The doc said the scalp and hair had to be found or the little girl would die? The stepMom drove off to get help?
Just the first sentence is enuf to make me wonder how much, if any, of the story is true.
Or are all adults morons in that town?
Ambrose, is that you?
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