Child Attacked by Pit Bull in Chicopee
MASSACHUSETTS -- Chicopee Police have confirmed a child was attacked by a pit bull-like dog Thursday afternoon.
The incident happened in the area of Front Street and Depot Street. Police said the child was transported to a nearby hospital to be treated for injuries. The child received non-life-threatening injuries, including a couple stitches to his face.
Pam Peebles from the Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center told ABC 40 the dog was tied to a fence when the attack happened. She said it sounded like the child, which was a two-year-old boy, wanted a stick that was near the dog, went to reach for it, and was bitten.
The dog, a one and a half year old pit bull-type dog named Bella, was surrendered to TJO as the family had no interested in keeping the dog after the incident.
Peebles said from here she will go into attended quarantine for rabies. She said the family mentioned a history of aggression with the dog, but this information will need to be investigated further.
A note to our viewers:
Thursday evening, ABC40 reported on an incident involving a child being bitten by a dog in Chicopee. The responses that followed the posting of this story showed true passion for the pit bull breed and sparked a back and forth debate on Facebook. We would like to apologize for the use of a ridiculous image of a vicious-looking dog with the words “Pit Bull Attack”. It was simply a poor and irresponsible choice, and the graphic has been purged from our database. As for the story itself, the initial report that our newsroom received from police was that a child was indeed bitten by a pit bull and transported to a local hospital. It was later clarified that the dog in question was a pit bull mix breed and we changed the scripting appropriately. ABC40 in no way intended to indict any particular breed and we apologize for the offensive posting.
(abc40 - May 15, 2014)
So much for journalistic integrity. If that dog wasn't vicious, what the hell IS?
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