“Well, I said if that dog came in my yard and attacked again I’d shoot it. So I did. I am not a pit bull advocate,” Lee Pattison posted on Facebook.
Pattison, 24, a Navy diver living in the southeastern San Diego neighborhood of Valencia Park, has become the latest, unwitting center of the ongoing debate over pit bulls.
Are they vicious by nature, not to be trusted, or allowed by irresponsible owners to behave badly?
The events unfolded outside Pattison’s house on Duluth Avenue, near Skyline Drive, about 8:30 p.m.
He told police he was on the sidewalk talking to a pizza delivery man when the pit bull tethered in a yard across the street broke loose, ran toward them and attacked his Husky dog, Bolt. He punched the pit bull several times, which turned and bit him once on the thigh, Pattison said.
When the pit bull resumed fighting the Husky, Pattison ran indoors and got his shotgun.
“I really didn’t want to shoot the dog,” Pattison told U-T TV on Tuesday. “After hitting the dog with the butt several times ... not even fazing the dog whatsoever, I really had no choice at that point.”
He said he fired once, killing the pit bull.
The bite wound on his leg was minor, Pattison said, and his dog did not need medical treatment.
[While trying to be interviewed, the pit bull owner came out of her house and began screaming and cursing at them. She had to be bleeped several times. Nice.]
(UT - San Diego - July 2, 2013)
