INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Michigan Boy Attacked By Pit Bull Saves Himself

By Nancy Bailey
Published on: 02:12 PST, Jul 8, 2016

Owners of a pit bull-type dog in Washtenaw County, Michigan, have requested that the dog be euthanized after it mauled their 10-year-old child.

The boy’s mother released the dog to Washtenaw County Animal Control, which turned it over to the Humane Society of Huron Valley. The dog’s owners requested the dog be euthanized, which should happen Thursday, said Wendy Welch, the humane society’s marketing director.

The attack happened on Wednesday, July 6 at the family home about 10 miles south of Ann Arbor. The boy was home alone with the dog, according to a report by MLive.

The boy was able to escape the dog and ran to the neighbor’s house for help. Melody Rittenhouse was on the phone with a friend when the 10-year-old boy showed up at her door.

“Everything is just a blur,” Rittenhouse said.

She had called 911, and she and her neighbor covered the boy’s injuries with towels. Rittenhouse later talked to reporters as she hosed the blood off her porch.

“He was very scared and so was I. It’s just horrific. Just a very sad day.”

An off-duty firefighter from Northfield Township, Chris Bishop, responded, and was able to help stop the bleeding. He kept the boy distracted by asking questions as he worked on him. The boy, “was his own hero,” Bishop said later.

“I was just trying to divert his mind to something else and help him concentrate on his breathing. I think I told him even, ‘You’re way tougher than I could ever be.’ I was shocked, really, how calm he was.”

Bishop also assisted by keeping emergency personnel updated on the boy’s condition until Huron Valley ambulance arrived. Emergency officials were notified of the incident at 3:29 p.m., and the dog was still inside the house about 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Joyce Williams, a spokesperson for Huron Valley Ambulance, spoke to WWJ’s Charlie Langton about the child’s condition after the dog attack, according to CBS Detroit.

“When we got there, the dog had been contained and we focused on the child’s injuries.

“We transported him to the U of M Mott Hospital in unstable condition.”

WXYZ reported that the boy was admitted and scheduled for surgery, with dog bites on his face and left ear, as well as a broken arm.

Augusta Township Fire Chief Dave Music said the boy “had significant injuries to his face and arm, which appeared to be broken with serious damage to his wrist and bicep area.”

Music described the attack as “a very serious mauling.”

The white pit bull-type dog was a family pet. Stunned neighbor, Steven Shay, told WXYZ that they would see the family outside with the dog all the time.

“Never would have expected it. It seemed like the dog loved the kid.”

Police don’t yet know what might have caused it to attack the boy, said Sgt. Mark Thompson.

Statistics are not good for pit bulls, according to dogsbite.org. An overwhelming majority of fatal dog attacks are caused by pit bulls. The majority of the victims are children and the elderly. The site reads as follows.

  • 34 U.S. dog bite-related fatalities occurred in 2015. Despite being regulated in Military Housing areas and over 700 U.S. cities, pit bulls contributed to 82 percent (28) of these deaths. Pit bulls make up about 6.6 percent of the total U.S. dog population.
  • Together, pit bulls (28) and rottweilers (3), the second most lethal dog breed, accounted for 91% of the total recorded deaths in 2015. This same combination also accounted for 76% of all fatal attacks during the 11-year period of 2005 to 2015.
  • The breakdown between these two breeds is substantial over this 11-year period. From 2005 to 2015, pit bulls killed 232 Americans, about one citizen every 17 days, versus rottweilers, which killed 41, about one citizen every 98 days.
  • In the year of 2015, the combination of pit bulls (28), their close cousins, American bulldogs (2), and rottweilers (3) contributed to 97 percent (33) of all dog bite-related fatalities. Both American bulldog fatalities occurred in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
  • Annual data from 2015 shows that 41 percent (14) of the fatality victims were children ages 9-years and younger, and 59 percent (20) were adults, ages 22-years and older. Of the total adults killed by canines in 2015, 65 percent (13) were ages 60-years and older.

Michigan State Police are still investigating the Ann Arbor area incident.

[Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Images]

Share this article: Michigan Boy Attacked By Pit Bull Saves Himself
More from Inquisitr