Officials said nine children were bitten by a dog at an Oklahoma City elementary school on Nov. 19, according to reports. The incident unfolded at the school’s playground.
Police and emergency crews were called to Fillmore Elementary School about the reported dog attack, according to
KFOR.
The Oklahoma City Fire Department told the station that there were 28 children on the playground at the time of the attack. Of that figure, nine were bitten.
Twelve children were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, said KFOR.
Officials said the dog is believed to be a pit bull or a pit bull mix, KFOR and
Fox25 reported.The dog apparently tried to get inside the school, but a teacher grabbed it.
None of the kids’ injuries were described as critical.
Police placed the dog inside a police cruiser until Animal Welfare officials arrived on the scene, according to the Fox affiliate report.
If it is a pit bull, it would be the second time in about a week that a pit bull has attacked a child.
On Nov. 11, in Florida, a pit bull jumped inside a 5-day-old girl’s crib and killed her, police said, as reported by the Citrus County Chronicle.
A Citrus County Sheriff’s Office representative told the news outlet that investigators ruled the death as accidental. They’re not expected to file criminal charges against the family.
The family said the pit bull jumped on a bed located next to the bassinet where the child was located, according to Bay News 9. A family member was in the other room.
Citrus County Animal Control officers took the dog and euthanized it.
‘Most Abused Dogs on Earth’
Animal rights group PETA has said that pit bulls are “the most abused dogs on Earth.”“Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbers—and since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that don’t slam the door in the dogs’ faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined,” the group said.
Karen Delise, research director for the National Canine Research Council and author of “The Pitbull Placebo,” has investigated hundreds of dog bite incidents.
She wrote in a now-taken down article: “My study of dog bite-related fatalities occurring over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership/management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining dogs, and maintaining them as resident dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding/protection, fighting, intimidation/status).”
Also contributing negative functions include “owners failing to humanely contain, control, and maintain their dogs (chained dogs, loose roaming dogs, cases of abuse/neglect); owners failing to knowledgably supervise interaction between children and dogs; and owners failing to spay or neuter dogs not used for competition, show, or in a responsible breeding program,” she added.
Dog Bite Statistics
“In the 13-year period of January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2017, canines killed at least 433 Americans. Pit bulls contributed to 66 percent of these deaths. Rottweilers, the second leading canine killer, inflicted 10 percent of attacks that resulted in human death. Combined, two dog breeds accounted for 76 percent of the total recorded deaths,” says
Dogsbite.org.Meanwhile, the state of Maryland determined that pit bulls are “inherently dangerous” and owners are liable for injuries that they might cause, the
Baltimore Sun reported.
