My (28f) husband’s (29m) family lives about 6 hours away from us. About 4 years ago we visited for Christmas and their pit bull attacked me. I was sitting on the couch when the dog jumped up and lunged at my face/neck. He managed to get my neck & ear, then grabbed my wrist when I put my hands up. My father in law had to pull the dog off of me. Thankfully, I did not need stitches, but at the time I was so freaked out I didn’t know how to react. We just cleaned the wounds and tried to move on. My husband was extremely upset & threatened further action. His father stated that I “was sitting on the his (the dog’s) side of the couch,” and he feels like the animal was “trying to lick my ear” since “that’s his thing.” For the rest of our trip, they kept the dog separated from us.

Fast forward to now: recently we attended a family event hosted at my in laws. My husband was concerned about the dog being around others, but my in laws stated the dog would be “locked away.” They zip tied the latches on the fence and placed the dog in their “shop.” As the party goes on, a family member was unaware of the situation and entered the shop to wash their hands. The dog jumped on her and bit her in the face. Rather than immediately take action, my in laws were furious about the family member entering the shop. A huge fight broke out with screaming and punches being thrown. The family member who was attacked left and went to the hospital, after my in laws offered to clean and suture the wound (medical background).

They continued to trash talk the family member and stated that it wasn’t the dog’s fault, and that “she (the family member) shouldn’t have gone in there” and that “he doesn’t like strangers.” Since the family member went to the hospital, the situation was reported and the sheriff and animal control showed up.

The attacked family member told the sheriff that this was the second time this dog bit someone. When they asked my in laws about that, they told the sheriff “it was just a scratch.” Animal control took pictures, and the sheriff took a statement, and basically said they’d be doing an investigation.

I got into a heated argument with my father in law and sister in law regarding the situation, because, obliviously I hate that dog. Unfortunately, I made the statement that dogs that bite humans end up dead. That comment lead to my sister in law needing to be physically held back by her brother with her screaming that she’s “going to kill me for threatening her.” My husband and I ended up leaving and returning home that night. My in laws were upset and stated that this is all over nothing. I let them know that they will not be seeing us until the dog is gone for good. My husband agrees with me, but he’s upset regarding the whole situation.

AITAH??