Posted on 06/22/2012 1:54:00 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Pet piranha bites off toddler's fingertip
MAINE TOWNSHIP, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) - When a northwest suburban mother discovered her 18-month-old daughter's finger had been bitten, she assumed the family pit bull was responsible.
But Cook County sheriff's police said the culprit was actually another household pet: a piranha, Pioneer Press is reporting.
Police said one of the child's fingertips was bitten off on the night of June 19 inside the family's home in the Bay Colony subdivision in unincorporated Maine Township.
Police said the child's mother reported she heard her daughter crying and noticed the toddler's finger was bleeding, the fingertip missing.
The mother believed the family's pit bull had bitten the child, but further investigation by police determined the piranhas, swimming in a fish tank near where the child had been playing, may have been responsible.
Police said the child's father cut open one of the piranhas, and the piece of his daughter's finger was recovered from the fish.
The child and the severed part of her finger were taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said she could not disclose information about the child's treatment, including whether doctors were able to reattach her fingertip.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxchicago.com ...
How did the dad know which fish to gut to find the finger?
AFAIK, it's set by state. They're illegal in all the gulf coast states, but I believe you can still get them up north...
Hmmmmmm ... I would have picked out the fish with the full belly.
They’re legal to buy here in Michigan. They will survive a Michigan winter in the wild but they need warm water to breed. Every so often one will be caught by a fisherman.
so....this woman is raising a toddler in a home filled with piranhas and pit bulls?
On the bright side, at least we know the kid is now sleeping in a crib that has been certified safe by the Consumer Product Safety Commission...
Thanks. Thought it was a federal law.
Found only after putting out a dragnet.
I had 3 Piranha growing up, one lived to be 10 or so...his name was Flash:o)
every time a family friends child was near my pit bull named havoc he would yelp. i finally realized what this three yr old was doing. he was grabbing then squeezing his balls. havoc never even growled at kid. just cried. amazing!
If you could grab that kids’ balls once he wouldn’t do that again. Sometimes experiential learning works best.
I’m sure that they have a snake. It would be the rattler that the kid plays with.
One of my Oscar’s went through a phase were’d he bite me every time I’d clean his tank. It didn’t hurt, he couldn’t get his mouth around my arm flesh and wasn’t clever enough to go for the fingers. He’s grown out of it by now.
Would it be in bad taste to make a joke about finger food?
“Pit bulls and prianhas as “family pets?”
I just don’t get it, I guess.”
These are “ghetto status animals”.
Not much more need be said.
Michelle.
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