Thirty year old Maria Drake, 21 weeks pregnant, was attacked by her pit bull today. Mrs. Drake was bitten on her thumb, left inner thigh, left breast, and right forearm. She was taken by ambulance to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center per Dog Warden Julie Lyle. She was in still in surgery at the time of publication.
Jesse Drake, husband of the victim, stated that the 1 1/2 year old pit bull had never shown any signs of aggression and often played with the four children, ages 11, 7, 6, and 4. Mr. Drake said the fetus was not harmed by the attack.
It was reported that the 71 pound, unneutered pit bull attacked Mrs. Drake when she went into the yard where it was playing with the children. Per Mr. Drake, the neighbor's children had been poking the dog with sticks and it was "riled up" and redirected on the victim.
The dog has been surrendered to Animal Control. It will be held for a 10 day quarantine and is expected to be euthanized.
.... An update on the above story. The 13abc.com report with video is considerably different from the previously linked article. The previous version might have been sanitized just a bit. Per 13abc.com "A Toledo woman is in the hospital after her dog attacked her. Police said if they hadn't gotten there when they did the outcome of the attack might have been very different." Lucas County Dog Warden Julie Lyle made the on-camera statement "We don't have any idea at this point. I don't think that it's a fatal injury, but I think she is severely injured, is what we are understanding at this point," .
It is reported that the the neighbors were not taunting the dog, they hit the fence in an effort to distract the pit bull as it attacked the pregnant woman for 15 minutes prior to the arrival of first responders. 13abc.com interviews a neighbor who was a witness" "A real big pit bull was just attacking her like trying to rip her arm off," said Margie Troiano, a neighbor of the victim. "So, we tried hitting the fence to try to get it to get off of her, but it didn't want to get off."
Neighbors then tried stabbing the dog, identified as a pit bull by the Dog Warden. It would not release its grip on the woman.
"The dog had her for about 15 minutes before anyone showed up," Troiano said.
Firefighters arrived and had to physically and forcefully break the dog's grip."
For additional information on this attack please click here. First responders are interviewed and show the tools they used to force the pit bull off his owner.Speaking of the Toledo Blade, congratulations to Blade publisher and editor-in-chief John Robinson Block. Mr. Block has been honored with the first ever "Hello Bully Hero" award presented by the breed specific advocacy organization Hello Bully of Cranberry Township Pennsylvania. The award was presented at the group's Lovers not Fighters Gala. Hello Bully promotes the Hello Bully Hero award as an annual recognition of greatness in the community.
A quote from the Toledo Blade article on this honor "Jean Keating, founder and president of Lucas County Pit Crew, said Mr. Block helped change both Lucas County and state law in terms of how “pit bulls” are treated. Mr. Block and The Blade were critical of former Dog Warden Tom Skeldon, who believed all “pit bulls” should be killed."
Family members of the twenty five Americans killed by pit bulls since the passage of HB 14 were not invited.
