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Annie Stark's 8-year-old pug Maggie was mauled last week in front of her Troutdale home.

(Courtesy of Annie Stark)

Annie Stark opened the front door to her Troutdale home just a smidge on Friday to see about the two strange pit bulls sniffing around outside. Her 8-year-old pug, Maggie, playfully put her front paws on the stoop.



Suddenly the visitors lunged at Maggie, sinking their powerful jaws into either side of the pug's neck. The next 10 minutes were terrifying.



"It was the most brutal, vicious thing I've ever seen in real life," said Stark, a 54-year-old former nurse whose eyesight is failing. Her 20-pound dog was very nearly devoured in front of her by the pit bulls, a male and female with a combined weight of 146 pounds.



Friday's attack was the third serious pit bull mauling reported in the Portland area in less than three weeks.



On Sept. 24, a 16-year-old girl got onto a Portland streetcar with a pit bull she called "Purdy," which was harnessed and on a leash. There in the car, the animal attacked a 13-year-old Pomeranian named "Lady," according to an Animal Services investigative report. The dog was pronounced dead a short time later.



Officials on Oct. 1 banned the girl from riding the city's streetcar for 90 days.



"We hope this enforcement action will help us put this horrific attack behind us," said Dan Bower, executive director of Portland Streetcar Inc. in a joint news release with Portland police and Multnomah County Animal Services.



The next day, a pit bull named "Smokey" attacked the landlady of a basement rental apartment. Kim Shay opened the door for a look at the property when the animal lurched at her friend, locking its powerful jaws on his arm and violently shaking its head from side to side.



Shay tried to pry the dog off her friend, and even bit its ear, which only seemed to provoke the canine. Smokey fastened onto her left arm, chewing it to shreds as they wrestled on the basement floor, sliding around in her blood.



She thought the animal was going to kill her. Her injuries sent her to Oregon Health & Science University hospital. (See photos below)



"I don't want this to be all about how bad pit bulls are," she told The Oregonian. "That's not the case. This is a single incident. It's not the norm."



Pit bulls have a mixed reputation. Those who love the breeds that are considered "pit bulls," including the American Pit Bull Terrier, describe them as sweet tempered and loyal. But from time to time, those reputations are sullied by vicious, unprovoked attacks. The dogs are sometimes trained for illegal dogfights, a blood sport that involves wagering on the outcomes.



Stark watched in horror Friday as the dogs dragged her little pug across her front yard.



"They saw her as prey," she said in a Sunday interview with The Oregonian.



Stark's 13-year-old son tried to pry the dogs off Maggie, but she called him away because she was afraid he'd be bitten in the face. Stark picked up a metal broomstick and began beating the pit bulls in front of her house. But they held on. So she began to gouge the dogs' ears and eyes. Still they wouldn't let go.



She sent her daughters into the house to call 911. She tried to tell her two sons to grab a shovel, but she was out of breath and couldn't produce the words. The broomstick was now broken in her hands, so she turned for another weapon to fight off the pit bulls.



"By the time I got to the front with the splitting maul, I watched them drag her out to the street," Stark said.



She saw a neighbor, a man well over 6 feet tall, heaving big rocks at the dogs. But still they wouldn't let go.



Only when her neighbor began to beat the dogs with the blunt end of the maul did the dogs break their grip on Maggie.

"Maggie lay lifeless in the street," Stark said. "I thought she was dead."



They got her emergency veterinary care and brought her home to heal. But Maggie died in Stark's bed.



"I woke up this morning. She was gone."



Stark said she intends to pursue legal action against the pit bulls' owner.

-- Bryan Denson