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Pitbull dog gets sentenced to life in prison

By Aileen Graef
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PHOENIX, May 1 (UPI) -- A pitbull was sentenced to life in prison after mauling a 4-year-old boy after a judge spared it from euthanization.

Judge Deborah Griffith ruled the dog, Mickey, shall spend the rest of his life in a no-kill shelter run by an Arizona women's prison after it mauled 4-year-old Kevin Vicente, breaking his eye-socket and jaw. The owners agreed to euthanize the dog but animal rights activists stepped in saying the mauling was partly due to negligence.

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The babysitter was not looking after Vicente when he approached the pitbull chained up in the yard. The judge justified her ruling saying that the negligence of the child paired with the chaining of the dog, which likely made it more aggressive, made adults a contributing factor in the mauling.

Mickey has been defanged and neutered and will be cared for by female inmates.

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