A woman suffered the loss of her leg following a brutal attack by her own pit bull, which left it severely injured.
Amanda Mears, 42, was preparing to take her dog Dennis, an American Pit Bull-American Staffordshire mix, for his regular walk. However, the situation escalated unexpectedly when Dennis lunged at her other dog, Ralphie, an American Bully, who had just emerged from a room where he had been kept separately while she got Dennis ready.
The Mirror reports that Dennis initiated the attack on Ralphie, and Amanda’s attempt to intervene led to dire consequences. Dennis clamped onto her leg and refused to release his grip, causing her immense pain as she struggled to free herself from the jaws of the dog she had known since he was a puppy.
No matter how hard she tried, Dennis remained latched onto her leg. Desperately, she attempted to pry his jaws open while instructing her 10-year-old son to stay safe in his room.
In a bid to save herself, Amanda, from Tennessee, resorted to using her other leg to choke Dennis, eventually forcing him to let go. Unfortunately, the damage had already been inflicted.
In addition to her leg injury, Amanda’s hand was bitten, and her arm was severely damaged, with a bone being crushed in the process.
“When he charged at my other dog, Ralphie, I got in between them, and that’s when Dennis latched on to my leg and would not let go,” she explained to The Mirror.
“I was a bit scared, but I’ve broken up dog fights before, and I didn’t feel any pain because of the adrenaline,” she continued. “I ended up having to hook my right leg and my arms around him and choked him out to get him off me.”
Following the incident, Amanda was rushed to the hospital, realizing she couldn’t stand.
“I wasn’t able to stand up because my leg was basically hanging off,” she described.
Amanda owns four dogs and also fosters abandoned dogs, providing care for those left by prior owners.
Faced with the decision of how to address her leg injury, Amanda opted for amputation.
“I decided to have my leg amputated because to save my leg, I’d have had to have 12 more surgeries over the next two years and I would be in constant pain,” she stated.
She also made the difficult choice to have Dennis euthanized following the attack.
“Dennis has always been the sweetest dog; he’d never been aggressive before,” she recalled. “I decided to have Dennis put down, which was hard.
“He was my best friend, and I raised him from two weeks old. It was a decision that hurt, but it was not a difficult decision.”
A GoFundMe has been established to assist Amanda in adjusting to life with one leg, and donations can be made here.