MAINE TOWNSHIP, Ill. – An 18-month-old girl in Illinois had her fingertip bitten off by one of her family's pet piranhas.
The toddler's horrified mother initially blamed the family's pet pitbull after making the shocking discovery Tuesday, the Pioneer Press reported. She had heard her daughter crying and noticed the girl's finger was bleeding.
After Cook County Sheriff's police were called to the house in Maine Township, officers determined the wound was actually from a piranha.
The family kept piranhas in a fish tank near where the child had been playing.
The toddler's father immediately cut open one of the predatory fish -- revealing the missing fingertip.
The child was rushed to the hospital, but a spokeswoman could not say whether the fingertip had been successfully reattached.
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