Pit bull bites off N.Y. 5-year-old's genitals

Hoa Nguyen and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon | The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

YONKERS, N.Y. — A 5-year-old who wandered into his aunt's bedroom likely faces continuing surgery after her pit bull attacked him, biting off his penis.

The boy, who was visiting his grandmother's apartment for the weekend, had tried to climb into bed with his sleeping 13-year-old aunt and her pet. That's when the protective 6-year-old female named Momma turned on the boy, severing his genitals.

He was rushed to a Bronx hospital and later transferred to another area hospital where he is recovering.

His grandmother, Marissa Pettiford; and Vernon Jackson, the father of Pettiford's 13-year-old daughter, were charged with having an unlicensed dangerous dog, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Pettiford, Jackson and the boy's mother, whose name is being withheld because her son is a victim, also were charged with allowing a dog to commit a nuisance.

Jackson, 45, who lives in a different apartment in this New York City suburb of 200,000, was ordered held on $15,000 bail Thursday, Yonkers Corporation Counsel Michael Curti said. The dog was euthanized the same day at the city's animal shelter.

The dog was at Pettiford's apartment for the weekend at her daughter's request, Pettiford said.

"For the three days she was here, it was no problem," Pettiford said of the pit bull.

The incident took place Nov. 10. A later criminal complaint said the youngster was "was savagely bitten by the pit bull, suffering severe bite wounds, lacerations and a severed penis."

The pit bull breed, with a reputation for viciousness that some argue is unfair, is responsible for most fatal dog attacks in the United States, according to DogsBite.org.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year dogs bite nearly 4.5 million Americans, half of them children and most ages 5 to 9.

About 885,000 people bitten require medical attention, and half of those are children. In 2012, more than 27,000 people bitten by dogs underwent reconstructive surgery, the CDC reports.

The public education group DogsBite.org reports that last year 38 people died from dog attacks in the U.S. Pit bulls, which make up 5% of the country's dog population, were responsible for 23 — or 61% — of the deaths, the group reports. Half of those killed were children 8 or younger.

Severe injuries of any kind to male genitals are rare. Until the late 1970s, men who suffered amputation of the penis had few options other than gender reassignment, learning to live as women.

The advent of microvascular surgery, which enables doctors to see and reattach tiny blood vessels, now allows surgical reattachment of the organ. However, dog bite injuries generally don't create a clean break — as Lorena Bobbitt did when she cut off the penis of her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, 20 years ago — and often require plastic surgery, said Dr. Evan Garfein, a plastic surgeon and director of the advanced reconstructive care program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

Police described the pit bull as "unlicensed, dangerous and vicious" in the complaint. They said Jackson told officers that he had the dog secured in a rear bedroom at the apartment. The complaint says Pettiford told the young victim "multiple times not to approach the dog because the dog was dangerous."

Pettiford, who said she works as a teacher, disputes the police account, saying she never told the boy to stay away from the dog because the pit bull lives with Jackson and never has exhibited signs it was dangerous in the six years her daughter has had it.

Pettiford, who has owned a pit bull in the past and has an 11-year-old son, said the younger boy's movements likely made the dog feel threatened. The dog had come to visit on other occasions and she said the family felt comfortable and safe around it.

"It was a family accident," Pettiford said. "It's very tragic."

Contributing: Jane Lerner, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News