Story highlights Francesco Bove, 62, was mauled by pair of pit bulls, police say

Dog owner Cynthia Oliver, 55, arrested on assault and reckless endangerment charges

Bove was read his last rites but survived

New York (CNN) A pair of pit bulls left Francesco Bove so badly mutilated that a priest read him his last rites outside a New York church.

"I think I'm going to die," the bloodied 62-year-old artist told the priest, Bove's son recalled Saturday. "But the priest made him promise that he will fight until the end."

The gruesome attack Friday was captured on video from the window of a tenement in the Bronx. The pit bulls are seen clamping onto Bove's arms with their jaws, shaking their heads violently, dragging him several feet toward the curb.

Good Samaritans try to stop the assault -- swinging a chain at the animals, spraying them with water. They attempt to encircle Bove, but the dogs swerve around to continue the attack. Still, the people probably helped save Bove's life.

"I got to the hospital and he was in pieces," Bove's son, Anthony Bove, said, describing gaping holes in his arms, a severed ear and the other split in half, and lacerations all over his body.

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