A Tennessee mother had her leg amputated after her pit bull viciously bit her while she attempted to break up a fight between her dogs inside her home.
Amanda Mears, 42, was getting ready to take her mixed American Pit Bull–American Staffordshire, Dennis, for a walk when the dog suddenly lunged at another dog in the house, an American Bully named Ralphie, who had escaped from a bedroom in her Murfreesboro home, according to The Mirror.
As Mears, a health care worker, tried to stop the attack, Dennis latched onto her left leg and would not let go. She was ultimately forced to choke the dog with her other leg in an effort to make him release his grip.
Amanda Mears, 42, lost her leg after her own dog viciously clamped onto it during a violent attack inside her home.
“When he charged at my other dog, Ralphie, I stepped in between them, and that’s when Dennis latched onto my leg and would not let go,” Mears said of the terrifying Dec. 10 incident.
Although frightened, she said adrenaline kept her from feeling pain as she struggled to stop the attack. “I’d broken up dog fights before, so I didn’t think much of it at first,” she said, adding that she ultimately wrapped her arms and right leg around the dog and choked him until he released his grip.
During the chaos, the pit bull also bit her left hand and crushed a bone in her right arm — injuries Mears said she didn’t immediately realize she’d suffered as she yelled for her 10-year-old son to remain in his room.
After finally breaking free, Mears was rushed to a Nashville hospital, where doctors found her leg so severely damaged it was nearly severed. She was given the choice of amputation or undergoing multiple painful surgeries over the next two years.
“I couldn’t stand up because my leg was basically hanging off,” recalled Mears, a longtime dog owner who has four dogs and has previously taken in abandoned animals.
