Woman Shoots Her Own Dog Trying to Free Him From Pit Bull's Mouth

A Florida woman accidentally shot her own dog on Tuesday afternoon as she attempted to defend it from a trio of vicious pit bulls, according to local reports.

Annette Sloan was walking her two dogs down Fargo Drive in Lehigh Acres when three pit bulls approached and attacked them.

"Before I knew it, they were surrounding us, knocked me on the ground," Sloan told NBC2.

"One of them snatched my puppy out of his harness and had him in its mouth. As a result, you can see I had to use my firearm to get that dog to let mine go."

Lee County Domestic Animal Services said in its incident report that Sloan had pulled out a gun and shot at the pit bulls three times. She then ran towards her injured dog, called Papa, and rushed him to the veterinarian.

The vet examined Papa and found he had an internal spinal injury as well as a bullet wound. The dog, who was 10 years old, had to be euthanized.

One of the three pit bulls also came away with a bullet wound in the leg, according to animal services. NBC2 reported that their owners have now filled out a dangerous dog form.

Pit bulls were originally bred as "catch" dogs, trained for hunting, herding livestock and pit fighting. The term pit bull covers four distinct breeds: the American bully, the American Staffordshire terrier, the Staffordshire bull terrier and the American pit bull terrier.

In 2009, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia published a five-year review of dog-related injuries in the journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, which found that pit bulls were responsible for almost 51 percent of all attacks. Two years later, a review in the Annals of Surgery found that pit bull attacks were associated with higher morbidity rates and hospital charges than attacks by other breeds.

However, according to the Canine Humane Network, pit bulls are not inherently aggressive and consistently score well on the American Temperament Test for dogs.

A 2013 study in the Journal of the American Veterinary Association also concluded that pit bulls are often misidentified and erroneously implicated in dog-related injuries.

It is not known what breeds of dog were involved in the Lehigh Acres incident. Sloan told NBC2 she was scared to take her remaining dog out for a walk. "People do not have control of their dogs," she said. "My puppy was on a leash and that dog snatched my puppy out of its leash."