Police Shoot Attacking Pit Bull In Elgin Home
ELGIN, Ill (STMW) - Police in Elgin shot and killed a family pet Wednesday that turned on its owners and its own puppies and then charged at officers who responded to the home on the city's east side, authorities said.
Six people, including a 3-year-old child, were home about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 400 block of Lincoln Avenue in Elgin, when the pit bull, named Loco, attacked its 6-day-old puppies, according to police department spokeswoman Sue Olafson.
"She was, in fact, holding the family at bay and charging anyone who came within eyesight of her," Olafson said.
Police shot and killed the dog after it charged officers, according to Olafson. None of the three adults or three minors at the house at the time was injured, she added.
The spokeswoman said it was unclear from police reports how long the family had owned the dog or if it previously had displayed aggressive behavior.
Eight puppies were taken by police to area shelters, Olafson said. Two had been bitten by Loco, and police also found the partial remains of a ninth the pit bull apparently had mauled, she said,
In another dog incident, an Elgin man told police he was walking his pit bull between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Wednesday in the 100 block of South Melrose Avenue when one of two loose dogs ran up and began attacking his animal. The man said he eventually was able to fend off the attacker, a medium-size tan dog with long hair, according to police reports. The other dog, a Rottweiler, began to approach when he heard someone from a nearby house calling for their dogs, the man told police.
The man told police that when he returned home, he noticed his pit bull had suffered abrasions to its right hind leg, and he took the pet to a veterinarian for treatment.
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