Man shoots pit bull that attacked two women in Fern Rock
The pit bull was taken to a veterinary hospital while the women were treated for injuries.
A man shot a pit bull that was attacking two women in Fern Rock on Thursday, at least the second time in a month someone has shot an attacking dog in Philadelphia.
Police responded to the scene on the 5700 block of North Park Avenue around 10:30 a.m. after receiving reports that two women, 61 and 67, were attacked by two pit bulls, leaving one victim with “several bite marks throughout her body.”
The attack prompted a man who was nearby to draw a weapon and fire a single shot into one of the dogs.
Both women were taken to the hospital and are in stable condition, with one suffering wounds to her shoulder, arm, and head.
The wounded pit bull was taken to a veterinary hospital, and its condition was not listed. The other dog is being removed from the property, according to police.
No arrests were made as police continued to investigate. The man who shot the dog had a firearm permit, police said, and turned over multiple weapons to responding officers.
The shooting comes weeks after the head of the FBI’s Philadelphia bureau, Jaqueline Maguire, fatally shot a 7-year-old pit bull outside her Center City apartment when it attacked her smaller dog, an incident that brought uproar from animal rights activists.
The pit bull’s owner has since claimed that the off-duty agent’s actions were reckless, and that her dog, Mia, was a loving companion.
Neighbors offered conflicting accounts, with some describing aggressive behavior from Mia, including a January attack on another dog that prompted three surgeries and $9,000 in veterinary bills.
Officials said no charges would be filed against Maguire.
The highly publicized shooting quickly drew the ire of animal rights activist groups like Revolution Philadelphia.
“People just assume that pit bulls are aggressive, but in reality they are very, very loving,” the group’s founder, Mansi Bhagwate, told media outlets. “Just give them a chance and obviously don’t shoot them dead.”
Comprehensive statistics on pit bull attacks are hard to come by, particularly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped reporting by breed in 2000. Prior to that, the organization found pit bulls were most responsible for fatal dog bites.
Another study, conducted by animal-industry historian Merritt Clifton, found pit bulls were responsible for nearly 70% of dog attacks in the United States and Canada from 1989 to 2009, though some dispute those claims.
The Fern Rock shooting comes a day after police in Virginia Beach, Va., shot and killed a pit bull when it attacked a teenage boy, leaving him hospitalized with serious injuries.
Two dogs police believed were pit bulls were shot and killed last year in Northeast Philadelphia after they attacked a 1-year-old girl, hospitalizing her.