Pit bull attacks Cape Breton woman

CANADA -- A Cape Breton, N.S., woman says she's lucky to be alive after a pit bull dog attacked her while she was walking in her neighbourhood.

Gloria Peck was heading down a path in a neighbour's backyard on the Wagmatcook reserve Thursday night when something grabbed her from behind.

She turned to see a pit bull sinking its teeth into her foot.

"I felt really scared, you know. I thought he was going to kill me," Peck said. "All of a sudden I felt this heat right in my leg. I fell down and pulled my leg up from its mouth and got up."

The dog was tied up and at the end of its rope. Peck hobbled to a store and called 911.

"He almost took a chunk out of my leg. It took the doctor an hour and a half to stitch me," she said.

It took more than 50 stitches to close the wound on her foot.

"If it wasn't tied, who knows what would have happened? I would be dead," Peck said.

A bylaw in the community calls for any dog that bites someone to be put down.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Rick Beaton said the dog has already been destroyed.

"We spoke to the dog owner, who agreed that the dog should probably be put down for safety's sake," he said Friday.

It was the second pit bull attack in the community this year. In January, a seven-year-old girl was bitten twice while playing in front of her home. The attack only stopped when the girl's brother kicked the dog. That dog was also destroyed.

The January attack sparked calls for a ban on pit bulls on the reserve. Peck seconded that call, adding there are a lot of them in the community.

"They should ban the dogs around here, because the owners are making them more aggressive. They're already aggressive anyway," she said.

(CBC.ca - May 18, 2012)