Posted on 03/05/2003 5:21:18 AM PST by 2nd_Amendment_Defender
TAMPA - Teresa Castellano knows that some folks saved her life. She just doesn't know who they are. Castellano, 25, her daughter, Alysa McBride, 6, and her daughter's friend, Kaitlyn Green, 8, survived a recent attack from two Rottweilers and a pit bull.
It is an amazing story of horror and heroism.
Castellano said it began while she was watching the girls at Kaitlyn's home on Jan. 18. Kaitlyn's father, Sean Green, had stepped out for 10 minutes to run an errand.
Castellano, of Land O' Lakes, said she and the girls laughed at something on television, and that apparently sparked the dogs to start barking and growling. She soon realized the dogs were not playing, and she sensed it might get worse.
She asked the girls to quiet down so the dogs would relax.
It never happened.
The dogs attacked.
``When [the Rottweilers] saw the fear, one of them started biting Kaitlyn,'' Castellano said. ``I told them to stop screaming because they were making the dogs upset.''
Castellano said she laid on the girls to try and protect them from the dogs. She then tried to block the dogs to give the girls a chance to escape to a bedroom.
Nothing was working. The Rottweilers were going wild.
So Castellano and the girls bolted outside the house at 8126 Bay Drive. The girls ran to safety in a neighbor's house while Castellano distracted the dogs. The pit bull, Petey, joined in the attack.
The commotion outside attracted the attention of neighbors and a motorist passing by.
John M. Anderson and his wife were in their car and leaving a friend's house nearby when they passed by and saw three dogs attacking Castellano, according to a Hillsborough County sheriff's report. Anderson drove into the driveway and began blasting the horn and yelling out the window, trying to scare the dogs and allow Castellano to get into the car.
It seemed to work. The dogs stopped biting Castellano, but she couldn't make it to his car.
Anderson, 22, was about to get out of his car when he looked over his shoulder and saw a man toting a pistol. He kept honking his horn and sped away to get his friend, Justin Turner, who lived nearby.
The man with gun was Winston H. Harr, a next-door neighbor. He had heard screaming outside and grabbed his Kimber .45-caliber pistol. His wife, Deborah, came, too.
Harr said he saw Anderson's car moving back and forth in the driveway, and three dogs attacking a woman. Harr fired three shots into the ground to try and scare the dogs. They screamed at the dogs, but it didn't seem to matter. Deborah Harr called the dogs by name, and they stopped momentarily.
Then, without warning, the dogs charged at Harr. The pit bull bit him on the leg before Harr trained his pistol and fired, hitting the dog in the head. He also fired at one of the Rottweilers, and it fell to the ground.
Harr, a librarian's assistant at Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library near Carrollwood, said he fired the rest of his bullets at the third dog, and it seemed to back away. He bolted for his house for more ammunition and a flashlight.
Turner, who had heard the screams and was told by Anderson of the attacking dogs, grabbed his Glock .40-caliber pistol and ran to the scene. He was told there were three dogs, and only one was dead.
Turner, 33, told deputies he positioned himself between the wounded Castellano and the Rottweilers. When one of the dogs made a move toward him, he fired. Deputies believe it was his bullet that wounded the dog.
At that point, both Rottweilers retreated into the house.
Also arriving at the scene was neighbor George Lease, a Tampa police detective. Carrying his 9mm pistol, he found Harr and Turner at the house with their guns.
While Deborah Harr and Anderson comforted Castellano, the three armed neighbors searched the house and found the dogs, one wounded and on a couch and other other laying on the living room floor.
The wounded Rottweiler was euthanized later that night at Florida Veterinary Specialists, said Dennis McCullough, an investigator for Hillsborough County Animal Services.
The other Rottweiler was placed under quarantine at Animal Services until Wednesday, when it was euthanized.
Alysa was released from St. Joseph's Hospital on Jan. 26; Castellano remained hospitalized this week due to infections from the bites. Both mother and daughter needed more than 100 stitches each to close the wounds on their bodies.
Kaitlyn's injuries required 20 stitches, said her mother, Jennifer Harvey of Town 'N Country.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said no one will be charged in the incident.
For Castellano, she said she doesn't know who fired the shots that spared her from the dogs.
``I thank them with all my heart. They saved my life.''
The morons that own these dogs now and the breeding practices are the problem. It is amazing there isn't more carnage. It used to read in dog books that pits made lousy watch dogs because of their temperment and lack of territorality. That is obviously no longer the case with the present state of this breed. Dobermans were inbred during the 70's in the same way by the same class of dog owning morons.
Just what is it about with these people owning a big dog?
As to Rottweilers, someone dropped two dogs off here in a three day period. We live way out in the country and this happens occasionally. Both dogs were really good natured. The other dog appeared to be a Lab/bulldog mix plus probably a few others.
The Mixed breed is a really good tempered dog but for some reason did not like the Rottweiler. She was expecting pups. Anyway, within a week, she had literally run the Rottweiler off. The pups turned out to be little jewels. I have given 7 of 8 away already and am going to keep one male who looks just like his mother.
Well...1st of all, one of the dogs had already bitten him. Which may mean his body was going into shock.
2ndly, maybe he doesn't go to the gun range every other week and practice. The vast majority of gun owners don't. Unfortunately, in many areas gun ranges are far and few between.
Finally - firing a pistol at a moving target when your glands have just dumped a massive dose of all kinds of funky stuff into you will negatively impact your accuracy. It is hard to shoot straight when your muscles are all trembling like you just had a double dose of amphetimines. Which is one reason why cops, who do get regular gun range time, miss so many shots in real world shooting situations.
Absolutely - all the more reason not to bring a short gun to a long gun fight.
If you have time - these guys did - shotguns are superior dog medicine.
Gentle as a lamb, yet smart enough to know real trouble when it sees it....Actually, my 110 pound German Shepard is probably smarter than 25 percent of the human population.....And more trustworthy than 99.999 percent of them...
Semper Fi
14 posted on 03/05/2003 6:00 AM PST by dd5339 (Lookout Texas here we come!)
Hmm- gun owners, ex-Jarhead...sounds good. Y'all come! If you wind up in Houston give me a shout- I'll take you by Collector's Firearms. Good store, good folks.
I was attacked by a lab and spent four days in the hospital following a three hour emergency surgery. That was more than "just annoying".
Mrs. Ches
Golden retrievers can be dangerous! One we had when I was growing up, knocked my father down and broke his ankle. Steve Doocy on Fox and Friends said that his golden knocked down his wife and she broke her kneecap. :) Ours scrapes his nails against us when we're swimming in the pool....
Dobermans
Rotts
Pit Bulls
German Shepherds
Chihauhuas (those things can be mean!) lol
Not every owner is as objective as you when it comes to their dogs. And not every owner (too few in my experience) works at training their dogs. There are some dogs that are just too dangerous to be owned 'casually'.
By definition, a dog bite is described as teeth touching skin. In that case, my golden bites me all the time. They have very 'soft' mouths (they can carry a raw egg in their mouths without breaking it). When he gets really excited, he gently takes my arm and leads me to where he wants me to go.
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