THIS is the moment a 69-year-old, 90-pound woman bit a rabid pit bull to save her pet dog during a terrifying attack.
Shirley Pasamanick said she was walking her 14-year-old dog, Sparky, in a shopping plaza when “all of a sudden” the pit bull pounced on the pair.
WFTV / Shirley PasamanickShirley Pasamanick, 69, was ‘shaking for days’ after the dog attack[/caption]
WFTV / Shirley PasamanickPasamanick said no one helped her when she was on the ground trying to fight the pit bull off Sparky[/caption]
WFTV / Shirley PasamanickThe moment Pasamanick bit the pit bull[/caption]
Pasamanick said she was “shaking for days” after the attack took place outside Plaza Tropical Supermarket in Orlando, Florida on September 1, WFTV reports.
CCTV footage shows her and her dog screaming for help as she tries to fend off the pit bull outside the store.
The furious dog can be seen chasing Sparky in circles before sinking its teeth into him, forcing Pasamanick to drop to the ground and try to pull it off.
Pasamanick told WFTV: “I had my cane, I started beating him with the cane.”
When the pit bull kept attacking Sparky, Pasamanick came up with a more desperate idea – she decided to bite the dog.
“I had my hands on his mouth and tried to open his mouth,” she said. “And I couldn’t do it because I wasn’t strong enough, so I leaned down and bit him on the back of his neck.”
The attack came to end when the pit bull’s owner arrived and dragged it away with a leash.
Pasamanick claims the man did not check on either her or her dog.
The incident left Pasamanick bruised and bitten, while Sparky also suffered bite marks.
But what shook her the most, she said, was that no one stepped in to help.
She added that the pit bull in question is dangerous and “needs to be put down”.
The attack comes shortly after a tragic case earlier this year in which a five-month-old baby died after being mauled by a family dog.
Little Carter was attacked by a 130-pound Great Dane-Husky mix while in the care of his great-grandmother and great-aunt at a home in Ormond Beach, Volusia County, Florida.
Police said the baby had been placed in a bedroom while the women made breakfast.
The family’s three dogs were free to roam the house.
Carter’s great-grandmother found him bleeding inside the room, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Great Dane-Husky was quarantined, and its owners were issued a notice declaring the dog “dangerous”.
It has since been euthanised.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there was an average of 43 dog attack-related deaths per year in the US between 2011 and 2021.
And between 2017 and 2021, more women than men died in dog-related attacks.
WFTV / Shirley PasamanickThe moment the pit bull began attacking Sparky[/caption]