Name: NS
Victim: Pet
Location: Pet owner’s front lawn, Illinois
Year of attack: 2020

Tell us about the attack

I had just come in from a walk with my teacup Pomeranian, “Chai”, as I put him down and unclipped his harness in the lobby of my business I reached for my phone on the desk and as soon as I turned around to pick him up again Chai began alerting and dashed into the front yard. I went running after him and saw him start approaching the man walking on our lawn with his pit bull. The man stood there as my dog was alerting and instead of walking on, he let his dog continue provoking mine. The pit bull yanked his owner so hard he slid forward nearly three feet, almost throwing him down, and in that instant the pit bull knocked over my dog and bit him and began to shake him violently. I began to fight with it, where it finally released and the man and pit bull ran away.

How has your life changed as a result of the attack?
I lost my only companion that was attached to my side from 2016 until his death in 2020. He was the most important life force from waking up to falling asleep everyday. I am totally traumatized at both his loss and the playback of the violent last moment we saw each other. My hand was injured while I was trying to pry open the pit bull’s mouth and attempting to hit it over the head. I am a machinist and the lack of hand strength means I cannot do my job properly, let alone mow the lawn for the past week after the accident.

Legal Consequences
The police refuse to charge the man with trespassing or name him directly on the report, but instead identified the owner of the business where he works. They told me that it would “severely limit the guys freedoms” if I pressed trespassing on him, and they refused it. They also did not list the dog as a pit bull, but instead as a “lab-mix”. My local police also refused to take another of my neighbor’s complaints for trespassing on their property also by the same individual and his pit bull… The local police told me they are passing the investigation to Dupage County Animal Control Sherriff. Local cop threatened he could/but won’t blame me for leash laws, however it is not applicable as this all occurred on my lawn and due to the trespassing and provocation of the pit bull’s owner.

What would you like people to know as a result of your attack?
Pit bulls should be banned. The death toll and injury count of innocent people is rising by the day. There is no way that law enforcement, the legal system, public activism through social media will ever solve this problem.