Shirley Pasamanick did not let go of her dog.
She is 70 years old, weighs just 41 kilos, and was walking with Sparky, her 14-year-old dog, outside the Plaza Tropical supermarket in Orlando, Florida, when a pit bull suddenly came at them without warning. She hit the animal with her cane. She tried to pry its jaws apart with her hands. Nothing worked; the pit bull would not let go of Sparky. Then Shirley leaned over and sank her teeth into the back of its neck.
It worked. The pit bull loosened its bite just as a man, presumably its owner, appeared and took it away on a leash without stopping to see how either Shirley or Sparky were doing. She ended up with bruises and was still shaken by what she had just done. Sparky survived. The man with the pit bull never came forward, and to this day the Orange County Sheriff’s Office still has been unable to identify him.