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Man Arrested For Using Machete To Defend Against Pit Bull

ISLETON (CBS13) - A pit bull attacked another dog right in front of a frightened family, but when the father of the family grabbed a machete and tried to help out, he ended up under arrest on animal cruelty charges.

"My baby, he was almost attacked by the pit bull," said Karla Chavez, the suspect's wife.

Chavez was concerned that her neighbor's pit bull was coming after her four children while they were playing in front of their Isleton home.

"It was really, really sad," said Chavez.

She says at that the same moment there was a friendly stray dog, a German Shepard, that was visiting their family in the front yard.

"He's a nice dog. I feed him and everything," said Chavez.

She believes the German shepherd intercepted the pit bull before he could get the to the kids

It was a dog fight.

"And so I try to put all the kids on the trampoline because they were fighting in here," said Chavez.

Karla's husband, Juan Loza, couldn't pull the dogs apart. The children panicked.

"Some of them were crying. Some of them were yelling, 'stop, stop,'" said Chavez.

Juan was so concerned about his children's safety that he attacked the dog with a machete.

"He had a machete," said Chavez.

Juan does not speak English very well, but says he struck the pit bull along his back, only that didn't slow the dog down. At that same time another fight broke out.

Karla says the owners of the pit bull, three women, were so angry about their dog being hit with the machete that they attacked her.

"They hit this just one eye, but they scratched me. They pulled my hair. They kicked my back. They hold my feet," said Chavez, pointing to her bruises.

The kids were safe, but when deputies arrived, they took Karla's husband to jail for animal cruelty.

"He has a court date," said Chavez.

It's unclear whey the neighbors didn't also go to jail for assault. We're still hoping to hear from sheriff's department.

The owners of the pit bull were not available to comment.

Juan says he'd rather go to jail for animal cruelty than see any of his children hurt.

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