This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

Puppy Chews Off Fingertips Of 6-Year-Old Asleep In Bed
By CASSIO FURTADO cfurtado@tampatrib.com
Published: Oct 15, 2003



TAMPA - Six-year-old Dontavius Bryant went to sleep Sunday night with Chauka, his 5 1/2-week-old puppy his aunt gave him two weeks ago.

When Dontavius woke up Monday morning, he saw blood in his bed and looked at his hands. Chauka, a mix of chow and pit bull, had chewed four fingertips down to the second knuckle of the boy's left hand.

"My brother told me to look at my hand,'' said Dontavius, sitting in a wheelchair Tuesday afternoon during a news conference at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. His left hand was wrapped in white gauze.

"I looked at it, and it was bleeding,'' he said.

Dontavius, who is right- handed, didn't feel the dog biting his fingers because an accident a year ago caused numbness in his left hand.

Dontavius was hit by a pickup truck in October while trying to cross East Columbus Drive, according to police reports. He was heading home after playing football in a church parking lot across the street. He darted into the road and was hit by the pickup, which didn't stop to help him, according to police reports.

The accident left him partially paralyzed on his left side, said his mother, Shawn Dewberry.

Asked by reporters if he felt any pain or was scared when he woke up Monday morning, he said no.

His mother was.

Dewberry woke up to take her older children to school, saw Dontavius' hand and started screaming.

"When I woke up, four of his fingers were off. It was a lot of blood,'' she said. ``He went to sleep with 10 fingers, woke up with six.''

Dewberry rushed Dontavius to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

Dewberry said her son underwent reconstructive surgery at St. Joseph's. She said doctors used skin from his stomach to cover his damaged fingers.

Chauka was taken by Hillsborough County Animal Control and euthanized. A necropsy determined he had chewed the child's fingers.

Dewberry said Dontavius didn't wash his hands after dinner Sunday, and Chauka licked his fingers before both went to bed.

Chauka will be the last dog Dontavius will have, his mother said.

"I don't want more dogs,'' Dewberry said. "We're going to stick to fish, to birds. No pets like dogs.''

He will still be able to play video games, one of his passions. Dontavius, a student at Potter Elementary, enjoys playing his Nintendo video game. He was playing at the hospital.

"I'll be OK. I can still play video games with one hand,'' he said.

The boy could be released from St. Joseph's as soon as today, and he already has plans for when he returns home.

"I want to go outside and play ... and watch TV,'' he said.

Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

I think it is *very* important to get the right dog for your family. There are too many news stories about pit bulls attacking their family members. I don't think it was wise to give a child a pit bull mix.

Re: Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

Yes and Chow's can be some evil mofos.

Re: Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

We have a purebred pit bull, who's 12 years old. Knock on wood, he's never attacked any of us, but then again, none of my immediate family members are young children.

Can the moral of the story just be: "Don't sleep in the bed w/your pet."

I mean, I LOOOOVE dogs, but not in my bed...gross.

well that too. . .THAT IS EXTREMELY GROSS!!

I hate to see folks KISS their dogs.:mad:

Re: Re: Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

Pit bulls are not "bad or mean" dogs. Unfortunately, because some people call themselves "training" or "raising" them to be extremely agreesive (for dog fights, etc.), they have gotten a bad rep.

My brother has a pit bull and she is the sweetest thing. She would probably run from a buglar. *lol*

This is a terrible story...however, Dontavius?????

Yaknowasayin?

http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmili...appy/bdent.gif

:D
I am one who spoils my pets! They sleep with me. But I feel ya on the NO pitbull mix! What the hell were they thinking?

(I am a dog lover too but right now I just have 2 cats)

Re: Re: Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

Agreed. I'd actually be more concerned about the Chow portion than the Pit portion, to be perfectly honest.

It's just bizarre that a dog would eat, instead of lick, a person's hands though. Never heard of a dog doing that before, particularly a puppy that is only 5.5 weeks old (which is a really tiny animal at that point). Definately a good thing the dog was put down.

12 years old???? Poor baby, he is going to be left hand tramatized (sp)! Why he said he don't want no more dogs? How do you even explain this to anyone? I need to stop reading greekchat ,cause I am trying so hard to keep a straight face.....bad Wonderful 1908!

Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

LMAO @ Wonderful1908...yeah, bad 1savvydiva also! Ya'll know I know that what I'm about to say is wrong, but I know ya'll know I'm gonna say it anyway! :o

Sweet Dontavious...son...you can also read a book with one hand!


ETA:
Oh yeah...that's sad what had happened! :cool:

Well, I never kissed my dogs and I would never let my dogs lick my face. I had a male dog that believed in keeping himself clean 'in that area' by licking it most of the day. I think it was his hobby.

Typical man. :p

Nuf Said!:)

You got that right! GROSSSSSSS!
http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/pukeface.gif

My mother hates that too. :) Dogs have enzymes or something in their mouths that kill germs making their tongues cleaner than humans. I let my puppy "kiss" me on the face all the time and it drove my mother crazy. She went everywhere with me and slept in the bed with me too. I spoiled her rotten. She's my baby. Then again, Sparkle is a frou-frou dainty Shih Tzu, a toy lap dog, and not a pit or chow. My dog barely had teeth when I got her at 7 weeks! It's weird that the puppy was only 5 1/2 weeks old and actually chewed that boys fingers off. He needed to be put to sleep! At 5.5 weeks, he should've still been with his mother. I cannot stress enough that people need to carefully consider pets before get them. That retarded puppy was probably the result of genetic problems or something early in the line that could've been prevented if the owner would have been responsible and had it spayed/neutered.

Re: Re: Re: Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

Pit bulls have definitely gotten a bad rep. I have one and she is one of the nicest dogs and just as scary as me. Chows on the other hand are really crazy. We had 2 when I was growing up and they didn't like anyone but my dad and I couldn't be left alone with them.
________
VAPORMATIC

Actually: Little Donte (short for Dontavius) isn't much worse off then he was when he closed his little eyes that night. He was paralyzed as is, so he was always playing video games with one hand, etc.

Good think big brother woke up, damn! The dog mighta just ate the whole left side UP!

How can a dog eat your finger, bones and all...ugh!

Perhaps thay smelled bad like meat or something. Maybe because they were paralyzed he couldn't keep them clean and the dog thought...I don't know. I am trying to imagine the scenario.

Re: Re: Re: Re: This is EXACTLY why I don't want dogs
 

yep, Chows can be aggressive, I've got a part Chow, part Akita... let's just say, no one bothers my home.


*****
But, w/ puppies, they are prone to biting. Mainly, like babies who put things in their mouths, it's how they "feel out" the world around them. Couple that w/ the fact their was probably food on the child's fingers, I can see how a puppy might have mistaken the finger tips for small sausages or other food.

If the puppy had all night to work @ it, and was used to being fed bones and other items from the dinner table, I can see how he might be able to eat the fingertips.

Chows are the only dogs that turn on their owners regularly. They don't have the trust that other breeds have. They can't be trusted the way other breeds can.

Pit bulls-its in the way they are raised. Yes, they CAN be vicious, any dog can, if its mistreated.

The Chow is more the concern. :(

I knew a pit bull growing up that was the sweetest dog ever. The Chows I've known were plain mean and unfriendly, all of them.