Pit bull attack causes woman's wrongful death

Anneke Kurt

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Pit bull attacks can leave a victim physically and emotionally scarred with personal injuries, or sometimes even cause wrongful death. Our Toledo, Ohio dog-bite attorneys see first-hand the dangers that pit bulls pose for families and children, even by those dogs that have never created a problem in the past and appear to be loving, household pets.

A Florida woman was recently mulled to death by her two pit bulls inside her own home, according to USA Today. The 2-year-old dogs had not been trained to fight and had been raised by the woman since their birth.

Toledo has seen its share of dog-bite injuries. A 4-year-old Toledo boy had his foot gnawed off by the family's 4-month-old pit bull puppy in February, as reported by the Toledo Blade. As a result, the mother was found guilty of recklessly creating a substantial risk of health and safety to her child and charged with failure to secure a dog. The boy, who suffers from spina bifida, is paralyzed from the waist down.

Although some pit bulls seem to be harmless, many think that the breed is predisposed to violence and aggression:

But it's also a breed that's increasingly becoming a problem due the nature of injuries they can inflict on humans, said Dr. Finocchio and Dave Holden, RISPCA director. Dr. Finocchio is convinced that pit bulls are genetically predisposed to being aggressive, since they were originally bred to be fighting dogs as far back as the Roman empire.

"The fighting gene has been ingrained in the pit bull. Man made him this way. It's our fault that we've made them this way," he said. "But how are you going to get that gene out of them?"

Mr. Holden said what scares him about pit bulls is that they give no warning before attacking -- they don't growl and their hair doesn't stand on end. In addition, their adrenaline doesn't stop, he said.

"They fight till the end," he said, showing a photo of a large Labrador retriever with a huge scar. The dog was dragged around by a much-lighter pit bull, he said. "They lived next door to each other for two years. What set him off?" Mr. Holden said.