On March 28, 2008, 38 year old Amy Rice of Minneapolis, MN, saw the neighbor's pit bull jump the fence and savagely attack her Labrador retriever. "I was sure that my dog was dying in my arms; it was horrible," Rice said. 

To save her dog, she began fighting off the pit bull, and biting it. "I didn't plan it, that's what happened. I broke the skin and had pit bull blood in my mouth," said Rice. (To read the story, click here.)

My first reaction to this story was amusement. However, on further thought I am struck by several things. First, Amy Rice is a very courageous woman. Second, the bond between dog owners and their dogs is amazingly strong. When a pet is under attack, people will jump in for the purpose of making a rescue. This is why pit bulls are particularly dangerous to people. A large percentage of my cases involve people who were bitten in an incident that started as a dog-on-dog attack.