Two pit bulls fatally mauled a woman’s dog while she was walking it in New Jersey. The dogs’ owner was arrested and charged.
The killing took place on July 7 in Barnegat.
As the woman walked her dog, the two pit bulls appeared from between two mobile homes and attacked her dog.
The woman shouted and called for help, and two people who live nearby rushed over to try to separate the dogs, one using a pipe to hit the pit bulls, which then fled.
“The victim’s dog died from its injuries while she was transporting the dog to an emergency veterinarian,” the Barnegat Police Department said in a statement. “Both residents who tried to separate the dogs suffered multiple lacerations to the arms and knee pain as a result of the struggle.”
Police warned people living nearby that the pit bulls were still on the loose.
In an update on July 10, police said a three-day investigation uncovered the dogs’ location and their owner.
Animal Control officers took custody of the dogs, and they have been quarantined for 10 days per the Ocean County Health Department.
Police identified the dogs’ owner as Angela Greco, who police said provided false information to an officer when confronted about them.
Greco, 60, ultimately surrendered the dogs but was arrested and charged with obstructing law enforcement and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
Additional charges may be forthcoming.
Research On Dog Bite Incidents
About 1,000 U.S. citizens require emergency care treatment for serious dog bite injuries daily, according to Dogsbite.org. Around 9,500 citizens are hospitalized annually due to dog bite injuries.
In a 13-year analysis, the website says that of 433 fatal dog attacks in the United States, pit bulls contributed to 66 percent or 284 deaths. Rottweilers, the second on the list, inflicted 10 percent of attacks that resulted in human mortality, the report says. German shepherds accounted for 4.6 percent of fatal attacks. Mixed-breed dogs accounted for 3.9 percent, and the American bulldog was next at 3.5 percent, the report said. Mastiffs and Bullmastiffs accounted for 3.2 percent of deaths. Last on the list were Huskies, which accounted for 3 percent of fatal attacks.
The report compiled fatal dog attacks between 2005 and 2017, showing that 48 percent of the victims were children aged 9 or younger.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children are more likely than adults to be bitten by a dog, and when they are the injuries can be more severe. Over half of dog bite injuries occur at home with dogs that are families with their victims.
“As the number of dogs in the home increases, so does the likelihood of being bitten. Adults with two or more dogs in the household are five times more likely to be bitten than those living without dogs at home,” the agency stated. “Among adults, men are more likely than women to be bitten by a dog.”