5-Year-Old Boy Attacked by Pit-bull

A 5-year-old boy suffered deep lacerations on his face after he was attacked by pit-bull while walking on Empire Boulevard with his father and older brother.

The incident occurred at around 5:15 Sunday evening as a father was walking on Empire Boulevard near Albany Avenue with his two boys, when suddenly an angry pit-bull lunged at them and knocking over and injuring the youngest – a five year old boy.

Thankfully the dog was muzzled, though the child still suffered a deep laceration on his face either from the dogs paw or a sharp corner of the muzzle.

Hatzalah was immediately called and they treated the little boy, who was also stunned from the attack. He was later transported to a local hospital for stitches and further treatment.

The dog’s owner, who had two additional pit-bull puppies with him and tied to a fence, was with the larger dog in his car when the attack occurred. He immediately pulled the dog off the child and locked it in the car. Police were called and an incident report was filed, though no criminality was involved or suspected.

The victim’s older brother was also visibly terrified from the incident.

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17 Comments

  • Accountability needed

    “no criminality was involved or suspected.”

    The owner should still be held accountable, as he did not control his animal, which is known to be a dangerous breed.

    He should not totally get away with it.

  • sure.

    pit bulls are violent animals. they are required to be leashed and under control of their owners. Did the dog jump out of the car to attack the child? or was the owner in the car, and this one dog wasn’t attached to the fence?
    Where are the surveillance cameras?
    Why are these dogs not banned the same as ferrets and monkeys?

  • Ouch! Refuach Shalayma

    I hope both boys and their father will overcome this terrorizing attack. I hope the child was treated by a plastic surgeon so he doesn’t carry the scars for life. Poor baby.

  • This breed should be illegal

    Though I stopped owning dogs when I became baal teshuvah and moved to Crown Heights, I do know a thing or two about them, having been a dog owner before.

    This breed has a couple of distinctive qualities–enormous strength/tenaciousness AND the possibility of impulsively “turning” against a person without warning–that make them a breed that belongs only in a zoo; not even as police or military dogs, because of their unpredictability.

    Several times a year in the NYC area, and around the country, we see that this kind of thing has happened and 9 times out of 10 the dog’s breed is “Pit Bull Terrier”. AND THIS WAS EVEN WITH A MUZZLE ON THE DOG!!!!!!!

    I feel so sad for the young boy, his brother, and his father, and wish them all refuah sheleimah from the physical wounds AND FROM THE HORRIFIC EMOTIONAL TRAUMA caused by this incident.

    I feel absolutely no sadness for the owner of the dogs. I feel revulsion, and that this owner’s punishment should not merely be limited to destruction of the dog (PS: Please let us know whether the dog was indeed destroyed as it should be, along with those puppies!) WHY? Because there are literally hundreds of breeds of dogs out there, and any one of them would be MUCH less likely to commit the random attack-till-dead assault that Pit Bulls are known to commit.

    When I lived on Union Street between Kingston and Albany, a little over a decade ago, there was a local non-Jew who had a Pit Bull, and frequently he walked the animal without a leash on our block!!!! With a deadly weapon like that on your block, owned by someone who was not exactly predictable himself, it was even a fear to report this (out of fear of reprisal by someone who owns this mamash lethal weapon of an animal!), even though it’s completely illegal to walk ANY dog without a leash in NYC.

    A pit bull is a more lethal weapon than any gun. It’s the equivalent of giving a set of knives that can be used all at the same time, to an extremely physically strong, mentally unstable person who has a tendency toward random acts of violence against anyone including himself!

  • op

    i have seen more pit bulls around lately. the police should get smart and deal with it now.

  • A Concerned Mommy

    These little boys should be treated for trauma immediately ! There are great hypno-therapists /therapists who help deal with it so that they dont take this fear into adulthood. It is literally terrifying to be attacked by a animal and can cause repercussions later on in life .

  • to #4

    Thank you for the explanation. As someone who knows next to nothing about dogs, I appreciate your comment.

  • Ma Rabbi

    are charges being filed against the owner?
    Was the dog put to sleep? It should be.
    The father of the 2 little boys needs an attorney.

  • MAYBE?

    What if we would get pit bulls and chain them to our parked cars at night, nobody would be stealing our wheels!!!!!!!!
    Mootah

  • ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

    Are we going to retaliate and protect wach other or not?
    each little incident in the world ,has to cause a massive response,exactly like the moslems do!!!

  • Scared of Dogs

    As a child a dog attacked me and knocked me over rolling on the floor. I’m still afraid of dogs till this day rightfully so.

  • Yossi solomon

    I also believed the same doctrine of number
    #4.
    I was bitten by a German Shepherd, as a five year
    Old, and have overcome my fear.. Without counseling.
    I am proud to say that I am the happy owner of a dog.
    Let’s make one thing clear.
    It is an urban myth about pitbulls!
    There must be millions of pitballs out there.
    The stories are usually sensuallized by the media.
    The statistics show, that the same, or even more amount of bites are committed, by other dogs
    ( not considered dangerous)

    I agree that the total lack of responsibility shown by the crazy owner, walking his dog without a leash.
    ( as is the case that post #4 mentioned) is highly dangerous!!
    But waking a dog “with a muzzle”.. Then stating that the dogs AND IT’S PUPPY’S should be euthanized!
    Is overkill ( pun intended).
    IF the pitbullb is raised the right way.. Ie, no promoted aggression, and other tips, then they will behave like any other dog..
    Meaning.. Its up to the owner to know their dog and to raise it correctly!
    To say that this owner.. WHO HAD HIS DOG MUZZLED
    should be punished beyindv the law is inane!
    As I started off by saying that I was attacked and bitten by an Alsatian.
    There was no police report..
    There was no TV camera crew
    And there were no people calling for the dog, and its offspring be killed!!
    Nor where they’re cries for the owner to be punished beyond the mandated status of the law!
    ITS A TRAGIC EVENT.. REALLY TRAGIC.. BUT LET’S NOT GO OVERBOARD! NOR GIVE WRONG TOTALLY INCORRECT INFORMATION.. AND UNNECCESARILY
    SCARE THE PUBLIC!

    • Yossi, you're mistaken. Look @ the stats.

      I’m the one who wrote “This Breed Should Be Illegal,” and I have the statistics to back up the fact that you are wrong, Yossi.

      I’m glad you coped so well after being attacked by a dog of a different breed. But Alsatians, like all German Shepherds, while they can attack and cause a lot of trouble, R”L, they do not have the pit bull’s uniquely elevated level of viciousness and tenacity, and the relentless urge to attack till dead. There is no excuse for allowing this breed to be owned by the average non-expert dog owner, and this breed plain and simple should not be legal to own, other than by zoos perhaps. Some things on this earth are way-too-frequently evil, and pit bulls are one of them, R”L.

      There are laws concerning other animals that are way too dangerous for the average citizen to own in their home and neighborhood, and pit bulls need to be added to the list.

      A pit bull can absolutely and torturingly kill like no other dog can. Other breeds can also be dangerous when owned by irresponsible people, but the pit bull has been proven to be an unusually and especially vicious and unpredictable breed, over and over again.

      Yossi: Two-thirds of all fatal dog attacks are by the breed called “Pit Bull”. See the links below.

      http://www.livescience.com/27145-are-pit-bulls-dangerous.html

      http://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/9-year-dog-bite-fatality-chart-dogsbiteorg.pdf

      And the reason I call for the killing of THIS dog (the one that attacked the Crown Heights child recently) and its puppies is the exact reason you yourself cited:
      “Its up to the owner to know their dog and to raise it correctly!” Obviously this owner was careless or naive or ignorant in some way. The muzzle was not enough to prevent this attack, so the dog was not raised correctly, and/or it’s quirky tendency to “turn” (become vicious) at random came out. This owner is too clueless to be allowed to raise pit bulls — and this owner had SEVERAL of them! The fact that the attacking dog was muzzled means that this dog had shown some kind of tendencies leading up to the muzzling of it. Again, muzzling isn’t enough, and the way these dogs were raised was NOT responsible enough. This owner’s pit bulls–ALL OF THEM–need to be destroyed now, because of their irresponsible upbringing COMBINED with this breed’s unique lethal quirk of “turning” at any moment, against anyone.

      This is a matter of pikuach nefesh.

  • awacs

    Three poisons that are deadly for dogs:

    1) Chocolate (the darker the better).
    2) Xylitol (an artificial flavor found in gums and the like).
    3) Antifreeze (just three ounces or so is enough).