WARNING: DISTRESSING FOOTAGE. Thayna Santos and her dog Aslan were walking along the road in Brazil when the two pit bulls ran at them, ready to attack the golden retriever
A woman who was seven months pregnant was caught on camera crashing to the ground on her stomach as she desperately tries to shields her beloved golden retriever from a pair of vicious pit bulls.
The shocking CCTV footage of the attack in Santos, Brazil on Thursday shows the pit bulls as they come racing around a corner and head straight for their victim. Thayna Santos immediately puts herself between her dog and the pit bulls as they try to savage the retriever. She can be seen in the distressing clip as she tries to pull them away by their collars, before falling heavily on her stomach. She still keeps up her struggle as she attempts to drive them away with her feet.
Passersby eventually come to her rescue, one armed with a shopping trolley, as they try to force the dogs back. Another leads her dog Aslan, to safety as the pit bulls are kept back and the woman gets to her feet.
Thayna told local media: “They came running out of nowhere. When I saw there were two of them, I was really scared.”
Thayna stressed that she did not want to promote hatred against pit bulls but instead hold their owners to account. She said: “I know that these breeds suffer from prejudice. But the owner did not offer help or ask how I was. Thank God, the neighbours helped me.”
She added: “After everything was over and Aslan was safe, I put my hand on my belly and said: ‘My God, my daughter’.”
Thayna was taken to hospital after the incident for a check-up but is understood to have suffered no complications.
It is unclear if the police are investigating the incident.
In January, the Mirror reported that a Buddhist monk in Thailand died after his own pet pit bull launched a brutal attack on his face.
Phra Bandit Bootsen was feeding the one-year-old pup named Jord, when it latched onto his hand at a temple in Nonthaburi province, Thailand.
The 45-year-old fell over, crying in pain before the pooch then attacked his face. The dog attack only came to light when a temple worker, 28-year-old Aou, went looking for him early this morning.
Aou said: “We hadn’t seen Bandit since Saturday, so I decided to look for him. I noticed that the lights in his room were still on. I knocked on the door but no one answered. His car was also still in the car park, so I knew he hadn’t left the temple.”
The worker said he dismantled part of the shuttered window and reached through the gap to unlock the door, but he was meant with a gruesome scene.
The shocked worker found the monk lying face-down in a black pool of his own blood on the ground. Half of his face had been chewed off exposing the skull underneath, while his left hand had also been severed.