/ Source : Associated Press

A judge ruled Tuesday that a pit bull that mauled a 4-year-onetime boy will spend the residuum of its life in an animate being shelter set in an old jail by "America's toughest sheriff."

Phoenix Municipal Court Approximate Deborah Griffith said the dog named Mickey will exist housed in the no-impale shelter opened in 2000 byMaricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an animal lover who offered to take in the 4-year-old pit bull.

Griffith had declared the canis familiaris vicious at a hearing a month agone simply declined to have him euthanized after animal-rights advocates came to its defence. Instead, she ordered Mickey to be neutered and defanged and gave the Lexus Project, a New York-based fauna-rights group and the dog'southward trustee, thirty days to find a rehabilitation center or shelter to have him. The judge said the domestic dog could not be put upwards for adoption.

The Feb. twenty assail left iv-year-old Kevin Vicente with a broken eye socket and jaw, and the boy has months, if non years, of reconstructive surgery ahead of him.

Image: Mickey, a pit bull
Mickey, a pit bull which attacked 4-year-old Kevin Vicente, sits in a cage at Westward Valley Animal Care Heart in Phoenix, Arizona. Michael Schennum / The Arizona Commonwealth via AP, fil

The case touched off a polarizing Internet debate on mercy, blame and animal violence, leading to candlelight vigils and riling upwardly thousands of animal lovers on social media who placed blame with the canis familiaris's owners and child's baby sitter.

Animal advocates say both the canis familiaris and boy are victims and a baby sitter watching the kid was negligent in letting him play near the animal. They too argued the owner was fostering aggression by keeping the domestic dog chained up.

Image: Kevin Vicente was the victim of a dog mauling
Iv-twelvemonth-old Kevin Vicente was the victim of a canis familiaris mauling on Feb. twenty which left him with a cleaved middle socket and jaw. The male child has months, if non years, of reconstructive surgery ahead of him. Flor Medrano / AP, file

Arpaio, who has been dubbed "America'southward toughest sheriff" for his immigration enforcement efforts and housing jail inmates in tents, testified that he was confident that Mickey would be housed at the shelter for the residuum of the dog's life.

Arpaio also said he didn't get involved in the instance to become publicity.

- The Associated Printing