A model citizen and human being. - Kathleen Imel is a hero in my book. She is a fifty-one-year-old woman who, while driving down the street, witnessed two loose pit bulls run down a seven-year-old boy named Joshua Pia-Perez who was playing in his front yard.
Imel hit the breaks, jumped out of her car, and ran to the aid of Joshua. Unable to physically overcome the dogs she did the only thing she could do, she laid on top of the little boy and let the dogs attack her instead.
"[The] lady came and threw her body over the little boy and the dog was going at her, trying to bite at her and the guy over here picked up a stick and was trying beat them off. Both dogs were going around and just trying to take bites," says eyewitness Melissa Lopez.
Joshua suffered bites to his head, face, ear, side, arms, hands and stomach. Kathleen Imel was bitten on the arm, face and back. Both were taken to Providence St. Vincent Hospital.
The dogs are in quarantine their owner,
...was cited for keeping a dangerous animal and failure to prevent a nuisance.
