To save her Lab, Minneapolis woman bites pit bull on nose

Star Tribune ^ | 4-2-08 | ABBY SIMONS

[kingattax]

Spare the (wo)man-bites-dog jokes, Amy Rice says.

After futile attempts to pull a pit bull's jaws off her Labrador retriever's throat after it jumped a neighbor's fence Friday, Rice was forced to turn to animal instinct.

"I ended up biting the pit bull on the nose," said Rice, 38, whose dog, Ella, was attacked in her northeast Minneapolis yard. "I didn't plan it, that's what happened.

"I broke the skin and had pit bull blood in my mouth. I knew what happened, and I knew that it wasn't good."

Injuries to the pit bull were minor, but now Rice is dealing with a potential rabies scare as well as her 12-year-old dog's physical and emotional wounds.

The pit bull was quarantined Wednesday by Minneapolis Animal Control after Rice's doctor told her of a possible rabies threat.

She's unhappy the pit bull, named Frances, wasn't immediately corralled by animal control officers, who told her animals that attack other animals generally are not taken away.

"I was sure that my dog was dying in my arms; it was horrible," Rice said of the 7:30 p.m. attack in the 1100 block of Washington Street NE.

"I feel lucky that nothing that horrible has ever happened to me before," she said. "[The victim] could have been a child. It just could have been so much worse. I really question the policy of not removing the animal."

[Just another Joe]

I'm sure you'd agree good relations with neighbors are worth a lot more than the value of killing a dog to protect a pile of trash.

I'm not sure I'd agree with that.

If you read the post he has small children and even though some parts of Alaska are a bit colder, those children tend to play outdoors when allowed.
Do you think these dogs are going to spare the children. They aren't being fed well enough by any owners to keep them from tearing into closed garbage bags.

I've had to deal with situations like this out in the boonies and sometimes you've just gotta deal with it the hard way.

[Vio24]

You seem to have enjoyed the very descriptive account of the killing of this animal that you judged to be dangerous.

Perhaps a bit to much, Frankly I believe you have a personal problem here.

[Vio24]

I have seen and experienced personally similar displays of emotional behavior. Only someone who never owned a dog or else never paid them any attention could possibly claim they have no emotions.

[Lijahsbubbe]

I have been told, repeatedly, that attacks like this are rare.

Me too. Funny though, just the day before a pitbull attacked a grandmother and her grandson. Killed her dog. Right near Minneapolis.