If you are a dog owner, you know the kind of unconditional love you will get from your pet. You are their world, and they take delight in showing you that in their own, sometimes odd ways.
And sometimes, they are willing to risk their very lives for you.
That’s what the owner of a young pit bull—just a year old—found out when he was attacked by a shark.
Shark Attack
It was a typical summer day for James White of Rohnert Park, California, as he fished off the shore of Sonoma County’s Bodega Bay. But because he was close to traffic, he decided to play it safe and leave his dog in the car which was parked no more than a few yards away.
When he later told the tale of what happened that day, it was greeted with disbelief. Because we’ve all heard about those fish stories, right? Where everything is exaggerated and that tiny fish someone caught somehow turns out to be the size of a whale.
White tells NBC Bay Area about the initial reactions he received.
“The first time I told somebody this, they were like, ‘You’re out of your mind, there’s no way that happened’,” he said. “Then I showed him the pictures and I’m like, ‘No it absolutely happened’.”
After fishing for a while, White says he felt a tug on his line—a strong tug. So he began the battle to reel in whatever was on the end of his line.
“It was about 10 minutes,” he said. “The only way I think I was able to get the line back is because it was swimming towards me.”
Imagine his shock and fear when he realized just what it was that was swimming toward him.
The approaching shark was a 6-foot broadnose sevengill shark. According to Wikipedia, this shark is an…
“opportunistic predator” and “a frequent top predator in shallow waters.”
Apparently, White was an opportunity this shark couldn’t pass up.
White didn’t realize what he was reeling in until the shark hit shallow water. At this point, he tried to remove the hook from its mouth, but the shark retaliated by biting him in the ankle.
White told NBC Bay Area that it only took a matter of seconds.
“There was blood everywhere. The first bite punctured an artery,” he said. “The pressure was intense.”
But human prey wasn’t all this shark encountered.
A 100 Pound Pit Bull Fights Off a 6-Foot Shark
Enter Darby, who at a year old is really just a puppy. And we’ve all heard of some of the very negative news about the breed.
WebMD’s Pet section has something interesting to say about the breed in an article entitled Pit Bulls: What’s Hype, What’s Not. Pamela Reid, Ph.D., vice president of the ASPCA’s Animal Behavior Center in New York says,
“[They have] great tenacity. They put their mind to something, and they do it.”
Darby just did it.
When White was bitten, he called out to some nearby fisherman for help, but it was Darby, in a vehicle with the doors closed and the windows only partially open, that responded immediately.
As tenacious as mentioned above, he managed to open the door and charge to his owner’s defense.
His first attempt to save White didn’t go so well. Biting into the shark’s gills simply made the shark clamp down harder on White’s ankle.
“I told him, ‘No back-off,’” White said in his interview with NBC Bay Area.
Darby quickly changed tactics.
“[He] repositioned and grabbed it by the tail,” White said. “He literally ran up the hill with it and pulled it off my leg.”
White was then able to throw the shark back into the water. And he recognizes something very important.
“If it wasn’t for him, I would have been a lot worse.”
And now, a puppy that was already loved has gained a further hold on his human’s hearts.
“He’s been a part of the family from day one. Just now a little more.”
Watch as White shares this incredible story.
