Witness tells how he 'socked,' threw off pit bulls attacking Seattle woman

SEATTLE -- Witnesses say it was a vicious attack.

It happened Wednesday morning near the corner of Beacon Avenue South and South Cloverdale Street in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The victim, a woman minding her own business, was, unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“It was a fight. It was a big fight. These dogs did not want to leave this girl alone,” said Stephen Pellegrini.

Pellegrini was driving by and saw the dogs attacking the woman.

He got out of his car and tried to help.

“I socked one of them and went back and I was able to grab the other one from behind the ears and throw it as far as I could across the street," Pellegrini said.

Pellegrini put the woman in his car to get her away from the dogs.



She was taken to Harborview Medical Center with serious bites to her arms and her head.

Police managed to catch the dogs and turned them over to animal control.

No one knows who owns the dogs, but this attack, once again, has reignited the debate over the pit bull breed.

Ellen Taft founded Families and Dogs against Fighting Breeds.

She's also written legislation she believes would protect the public from pit bulls and other fighting dogs if it were enacted.

She believes something has to be done to control or, at the very least, manage the breed.

"I do not go anywhere near a pit bull. The breed itself is inherently dangerous because it was bred, artificially, for fighting," Taft said.

But others think that's silly.

"Different dogs have different personalities. I don't think it correlates directly to breed,” former pit bull owner Hakim Kamel said.

Kamel rescued his female pit bull, Daisy, from the animal shelter when she was just was barely a year old.

When she died early this year, she was 14.

He believes it is more about the owner and less about the breed.

"The analogy I use is like a kitchen knife. Every kitchen knife is dangerous and every time you pull it out of the knife block, you got to make sure you take precautions when you're using it. To me, dogs are the same way,” Kamel said.

Two of those who stopped to help the woman Wednesday morning were also bitten, but their injuries were minor.

Taft says another issue is pet insurance; if an owner doesn’t have it or any money, the victim or the taxpayer ends up footing the medical bill.

When police find the dogs’ owner, he or she could face criminal charges.