MOUNT HOLLY, N.C.-- A homeowner in Gaston County is pushing for the passage of a controversial law after a pit bull attacked him and his dog in Mount Holly.
The law would ban pit bulls all together in Mount Holly.
“She’s a good girl,” says the veterinarian caring for Cheyenne, A 7-year-old greyhound, who just survived the fight of her life.
“The ear was sutured at the emergency clinic,” says the vet.
Cheyenne also has gouges at her throat, feet and hind legs. She just got her stitches out.
“There was teeth, there was blood all in the road,” says Stephen Aldridge, who is one of the neighbors who saw the attack.
The tooth was the greyhound's, torn out when her owner says a pit bull came at them from behind.
“He ripped it out of her head,” says Todd Young.
Young was walking Cheyenne in their Mount Holly neighborhood two weeks ago.
The two were a half block away from the pit bull they'd passed.
“The next thing I knew the dog was brushing my right leg and immediately grabbed her by the throat and took her down to the ground,” says Young.
“The dog just viciously jumped the dog from behind, the man never seen him coming,” Aldridge says.
The pit also bit Young on the hand and leg.
Gaston County Animal Control quarantined the dog for 10 days, but has since given it back to the owner, despite admitting they have a number of reports about the dog attacking.
Cindy Carpenter also lives in the neighborhood and says, “It’s just really scary to know a dog like this is loose in the city limits.”
That's why Young is now leading the effort to ban pit bulls from Mount Holly, something hundreds of other cities in the U.S. have already done.
“It is not a very high quality of life or an image we need to project when you cannot walk through your residential neighborhood without fear,” Young says.
“There’s no sense having a dog like that in a neighborhood like this,” Aldridge added.
“I do, I think they should be banned from the city limits especially,” Carpenter says, pointing out she fears for her three-year-old grandson, who often visits.
Young says, “There’s just no room in a densely populated residential area for pit bulls or pit bull mixes.”
He says it's not just for him, but for Cheyenne and for the peace and quiet of his community.
Young is working on a petition to go before the city council and ask for a public hearing on the ban.
There is already one town in North Carolina with this type of ban in place.
