Pit Bull Mauls Elderly Woman to Death Near Chicago: Reports

Stock photo of police tape. Carl Ballou/Shutterstock

An elderly woman was mauled to death by a pit bull, forcing police to kill the animal, WGN-TV reported.

The incident took place on Komensky Ave and 116th St. in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, Illinois.

The victim is a 77-year-old woman. The dog who attacked her was her pet, police said.

CBS Chicago reported that police were called to the home at around 3:30 p.m. after someone reported that a person was being attacked by a dog in the backyard.

The dog was aggressive when police arrived and had to be killed, Alsip police said.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene of the attack.

There were no previous complaints involving the dog.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to release the identity of the woman. An autopsy is slated for Tuesday, Dec. 12.

Chula, a roughly 8-year-old American pit bull terrier mix at the Humane Society of Port Jervis and Deerpark on Jan. 5, 2016. Holly Kellum/Epoch Times

According to the American Pit Bull Foundation, “there are many myths surrounding the American Pit Bull Terrier and hopefully after reading this article you’ll become an advocate for spreading the truth.” It says: “It is reported on temperament tests conducted by the American Temperament Test Society that Pit Bulls had a passing rate of 82% or better — compared to only 77% of the general dog population.”

According to the Center For Disease Control (CDC), some 4.5 million dog bites occur in the United States every year, and 900,000 of those bites become infected, says The Canine Journal. It adds that the dogs the bite the most are Chihuahuas, Bulldogs, Pit Bulls, German Shepherds, Australian Shepherds, Jack Russell Terriers, Cocker Spaniels, Bull Terriers, Pekingese dogs, and Papillion dogs.

But, it noted, of the 41 fatal dog attacks in the United States, pit bulls killed the most, contributing 22 of these deaths.

From 2005 to 2016, pit bulls and Rottweilers accounted for 76 percent of fatal attacks, the website said.

A Pit Bull terrier is seen being trained by his owners in the Moroccan city of Fez on Jan. 30, 2012. Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

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