10Out for blood
Priest tells of last rites for pit bulls’ maul vic
THE BRONX priest who administered last rites to a man nearly mauled to death by pit bulls said Sunday “the dogs were looking for blood.”
The Rev. Jonathan Morris of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church ripped off his shirt in an effort to stop the bleeding from Francesco Bove’s numerous wounds on his arms and head after the two vicious dogs attacked Friday.
“He was dying. Blood was all over his face,” said Morris.
“He was passing out. He said, ‘I see stars, tell me what I should do.’ I told him ‘I’ll give you last rites as long as you promise to fight.’ ”
Morris recalled rushing the bloodied and terrified victim into the church to escape the beasts.
“It was like a pack of wolves. The dogs were looking for blood,” Morris said.
Fortunately, Bove’s fear he was dying was unfounded. The 62-year-old was being treated at St. Barnabas Hospital for his many injuries. The dogs bit off nearly all of his right ear.
Morris wasn’t the only one in the Belmont neighborhood who said the dogs were out of control.
A neighbor said the pit bulls owned by Cynthia Oliver killed three dogs this summer. Christina Salgado, 22, said she watched in horror as the two vicious dogs chewed on Bove, who had stopped to pet them.
“She feeds those dogs raw meat,” Salgado said, dismissing cops who said that Oliver had sicced the beasts on their prey. “They already had the taste of blood.”
The dogs have a horrible reputation, Salgado added.
“They tore a dog apart right here. One grabbed from the front and one was in the back. They tore it into pieces,” she said. “They run wild in the streets.”
Mohamed Kaid, 30, who works at a nearby deli, said Oliver desperately tried to control the dogs Friday morning as they chomped on Bove, an artist from Coney Island.
“They’re bad dogs. No one in the neighborhood touches them or pets them,” he said. “If they’re on one side of the street, people walk to the other side.”
Salgado said the dogs broke free of their harnesses when Bove went to pet them.
She described Oliver as a frail woman who “could barely hold herself up.”
Another neighbor, Madeline Rayor, 31, said the dogs are named T.I. and Runt-Runt and that they dragged Bove around “like a rag doll.”
Police arrested Oliver on eight counts of assault and two counts of reckless endangerment.