15-year-old saves cousin from dog attack

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A quick-thinking teen may have saved her little cousin’s life after a dog attacked them both.

9-year-old Tamaya Jackson has her 15-year-old cousin to thank for possibly saving her life.

The girls claim a Pitbull named Tiger, now housed at animal care and control, attacked them Thursday night. It happened along Z Terrace in their Riviera Beach neighborhood while they walked near a neighbor’s home. “I looked back and my cousin was down on the floor getting bit,” Tyleah said. “He was like mean because it doesn’t seem like he was playing with me,” her 9-year-old cousin Tamaya said.

Now instead of attending the last day of school, both girls are at home tending to their wounds.

Tamaya showed CBS12 the bandage on her arm where she says the dog latched on. Her cousin Tyleah showed CBS12 a wound on her hand that she says is from fighting off the dog.

Tiger’s owner told Animal Care and Control that the dog is very friendly and playful and that the girls were playing in the yard near the dog when it’s tether broke.

Neighbors say the dog is a menace and they don’t want it back in their neighborhood. “He’s vicious. If he bites two kids, what can he do to an elderly person, to anybody,” neighbor Vikkita Stratford-Horne said.

The dog remains at quarantined at Animal Care and Control. The incident remains under investigation. Source: cbs12.com