Pit Bull facts

Child attacked by pit bull in Weirton | www.wtov9.com:
Top Commenter · Editor at Animal People
I have been logging fatal and disfiguring dog attacks since September 1982. 
Of the 4,011 dogs involved in fatal and disfiguring attacks on humans occuring in the U.S. & Canada in the past 30.5 years:
2,474 (62%) were pit bulls.
3,218 were of related molosser breeds, including Rottweilers, mastiffs, boxers, and their mixes, as well as pit bulls. 

Of the 504 human fatalities.
251 were killed by pit bulls.
373 (69%) were killed by pit bulls & other molosser breeds. 

Of the 2,216 people who were disfigured.
1,415 (61%) were disfigured by pit bulls.
1,810 (82%) were disfigured by pit bulls & other molosser breeds. 

Of the total deaths and disfigurements by pit bulls, approximately half have occurred in the past five years. 
Surveys of dogs offered for sale or adoption indicate that pit bulls are less than 5% of the U.S. dog population; molosser breeds, all combined, are 9%. 

This is, in short, a repetitively predictable phenomenon which is occurring more & more often, and, incidentally, is resulting in about 10 times as many animal deaths & disfigurements by pit bulls as are suffered by humans.
"What a family member advised me was she had just adopted the dog from one of our local shelters on Thursday," said Weirton Police Sgt. Steve Falbo. "She had brought it home, she was unfamiliar with the animal and for some unknown reason the animal turned on the child."

That child was a 5-year-old boy, the pit bull was also five. Police say the boy was gone by the time they arrived -- taken to a Pittsburgh area hospital, the majority of one ear gone.

"What was its demeanor like by the time you had gotten on scene?" asked NEWS9's Ryan Eldredge. "It was aggressive," said Falbo. "It was aggressive. It didn't want us around it at all."

Falbo said the dog did run away from the scene. But they cornered it quickly in Marland Heights, where they were finally able to get it under control.

"Brooke County told me the dog will be put down and they'll send it off for testing," said Falbo. "So we'll know that the child won't have to endure rabies treatment."
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