Pittsburgh Steelers’ James Harrison’s son recovering after dog attack, but can the dog be saved?

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Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison is hoping his dog, a pit bull named Patron, will be given a second chance after biting his 2-year-old son.

The dog apparently became agitated and bit the boy on the thigh when he started to cry. Also slightly injured were the boy’s mother and Harrison’s massage therapist, both of whom tried to intervene when the dog attacked. The boy has since been released from a children’s hospital and, according to Harrison’s agent Bill Parise, is walking and has no muscle or nerve damage as a result of the bite. Both his mother and the massage therapist have recovered (although the massage therapist required several stitches).

Patron was taken to Animal Control of McKees Rocks, where initial reports said that he would be kept under quarantine for 10 days, after which he would be euthanized.

But now Harrison says that he’d like the dog to be spared and ‘he would love to find a home for him, but only if it was a home that would provide maximum security,’ Parise told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ‘This decision is not being made lightly, and it would have to be in the best interest of the welfare of the animal as well as of people.’

Patron had never attacked before, Parise said, but finding a rescue organization to take a dog who’s attacked even once is proving difficult so far.

-- Lindsay Barnett