3-Year-Old Critical After Being Mauled By Pit Bull

NEW CASTLE, Del. -- A 3-year-old girl remains in critical condition at Christiana Hospital.

Police said the incident happened on Oakmont Avenue at 10:30 a.m. in New Castle.

Police and paramedics responded after they received the report of a child who was attacked by a pit bull. When they arrived, they found Destiny Campbell suffering from massive head and shoulder injuries.

Police said the victim and her mother had driven to a home to pick up the child's grandmother. While inside the home, a dog, named Diamond, attacked the child. Police said that the attack was unprovoked.

A group of area residents responded to the calls for help from relatives and began beating the dog with sticks and broom handles.

The SPCA later responded to the scene and caught the dog, which had fled from the residents.

Witnesses said that the dog was generally peaceful and calmed down immediately after the attack.

"After this happened, the dog appeared to be polite. The tail was wagging. Even when the SPCA arrived and had to corral the dog with the lasso, the dog was still listening," said Trinidad Navarro, of the New Castle County Police Department.

The pit bull belonged to a family member, Turquoise Robinson. Police took her into custody on unrelated charges.

As she was being taken into custody on Monday afternoon, Robinson saw NBC 10 reporter Tim Furlong near a police car waiting to take her away.

Robinson then spit on the reporter as a cameraman taped the incident, and she responded, "that's why."

I've been waiting for the next Pit Bull Mauling thread -- I knew it was only a matter of time. Two weekends ago, I was literally IN FEAR OF MY LIFE from a Rottweiler and a pit bull while I was walking up a lane in a hilly, fairly nice neighborhood in Southern California. This was a public street. I wasn't trespassing. It wasn't a "low-rent" part of town.

On my way up the street, a family was getting in/out of a car, with the family Rottweiler in attendance. I walked past, the dog looked at me suspiciously, but people were around so I went on.

I was not able to get even close to the end of this dead-end canyon-country lane because of at least half a dozen barking dogs of various breeds, including what looked like one pit bull, loose on the street about 100 yards up. I decided to turn around and head back to the main road. I did. I walked back past the place where I saw the rottweiler. It was still there in the street; the family was nowhere to be seen. I walked past the rottweiler, and it growled at me. I felt mentally petrified, but kept walking. I did not at any time look at the dog or acknowledge its presence. I walked on the side of the street farthest from its territory.

Within a few seconds after the dog had growled, I heard rustling in the hills next to the house and saw a pit bull aggressively heading down into the street to my right, as if in pack-behavior response to the growl of the rottweiler. I felt like I was being stalked, as if any minute the two dogs would take me down. They could have; if they had, I would have stood no chance in spite of the fact that there were people around outside visiting each other (it was a sunny Sunday afternoon) who may or may not have owned the dogs; there's no way they could have called them off. My heart lurched around in my chest like a leaping bullfrog on a tether, but I continued walking calmly down the street and away from the dogs. I never looking at them nor acknowledged their presence. I pretended I didn't know they were there. I am convinced that if I had turned and looked at either of them, they would have jumped me.

Now, here's the point. These dogs could easily have killed me right then and there. People who own these creatures are putting ME in danger and infringing on MY freedoms, as they are on YOU and YOURS. I don't know what the solution is -- I really don't even agree with the law that dogs should always be on leashes; our neighbors up the street have a couple of dogs they let run loose (a spaniel and a sweet little mutt) and I'd hate to see them always confined to leashes. As a rule I don't like the old "there oughta be a law" response. But SOMETHING has to be done about Rottweilers and pit bulls because unlike spaniels and little mutts, they are DEADLY and DEADLY UNPREDICTABLE. Either outlaw those dogs, or have crippling fines and JAIL TIME for owners whose dogs are at any time, for any reason, loose on public property.

Is there a right to own a "fighting breed" as a pet?

Apparently there is. But more and more communities are wising up and banning pit bulls.

Why would anyone own a pit when there are THOUSANDS of breeds that are proven to be good pets and will not kill at the slightest provocation, or no provocation.

We will continue to read these stories about pit bulls. People don't learn, except when it affects them personally. So, laws are going to have to assign responsibility for dog attacks to their owners, and the owners will have to spend the same amount of time in jail for their dog's actions as if they, themselves, had committed the act.

Insurance companies are going to have to refuse (as they are doing in Texas) to offer homeowners' insurance to those who keep pits, rotts, and certain other dangerous breeds.

Financial and civil penalties are the only way to stop people from owning these dogs.

The pit bull should be bred out of existence.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.