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James Harrison’s Pit Bull Attacks His Infant Son

May 23, 2009, 9:40 PM UTC

“Bad” doesn’t even begin to describe reigning Super Bowl MVP James Harrison’s week. A “bad week” is where you get a speeding ticket, your TV goes on the fritz, and you have to ground your son because he poured Kool-Aid on the TV.
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â†µNo, Harrison’s got it a whole lot worse than bad. He initially made waves by refusing to join his team at the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl, then by trying to cover for it by concocting a fantastically ludicrous excuse that Obama wasn’t down for the Steelers enough, then had to own up to the fact that it was due to a powerful phobia of flying (and as you know, young, aggressive men are always so eager to openly discuss their deepest fears).
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â†µThen there’s this, a frightening scene at Harrison’s home where his pit bull attacked his 2-year-old son, James Harrison III. The infant is doing about as okay as you could hope, considering it was bitten by a breed of canine that might as well be called MURDERDOG--yes, in all caps.
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â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥The boy’s mother, Beth Tibbott, was also bitten when she intervened.â†µâ‡¥The friend, who was present during the attack and asked that her nameâ†µâ‡¥not be used, said Ms. Tibbott has been released from UPMC Presbyterian.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Mr. Harrison [...] was not home at the time of theâ†µâ‡¥attack.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µThe story goes that the baby, who was usually fine being around the dog (and vice versa), began to fuss or otherwise lead the dog to believe that it was prey; the dog attacked, then bit two others that tried (successfully, of course) to intervene.â†µ

â†µâ†µJames III is in stable condition at the hospital and Harrison’s agent described the injuries as “serious but certainly not life-threatening.” So that’s good, though definitely not as good as, say, “not having been bitten by a MURDERDOG at all.” All the same, he’ll likely be out in a day or two.â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd that’s the unfortunate, uncomfortable truth. Most humanely-raised pit bulls are perfectly capable of not attacking anyone else, dog or human. Most will live their entire lives without a violent episode. We’d even go so far as to guess that a swimming pool are a more dangerous thing to a young child to have in one’s home than a pit bull.â†µ

â†µâ†µBut somehow, there’s something about the breed that’s been imbued into their deepest predispositions where given the right cue, any one of them might attack. It’s what they’re bred to do. And it’s never the nice, well-mannered pit bull that does it... until one fateful day, it is.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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