Red-bellied Piranha Pygocentrus (© FLPA / Alamy)

Dad slices open pet piranha to recover daughter's fingertip

6/24/2012

A Chicago-area father was forced to slice open his pet piranha this week to recover the fingertip of his 18-month-old daughter, which the razor-toothed fish had apparently bitten off. The girl reportedly began crying in their Maine Township home, and when the parents came in they discovered she was bleeding at the fingertip. Thinking she'd been bitten by their 65-pound pit bull, the couple raced the girl to the hospital where authorities determined it was a fish bite. The father then drove home, reached a hand into the tank and cut open one of the two piranhas. Inside, he found the toddler's missing digit which doctors attempted to reattach, but it's not known if the effort was successful.

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Do you think it's OK for parents to have piranhas as pets?