A Phoenix judge has ruled a pit bull that mauled a 4-year-old boy earlier this year will spend the rest of its life in an animal shelter set up in an old jail.
Municipal Court Judge Deborah Griffith says the dog named Mickey will be housed in the shelter operated by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who offered to take in the dog.
Griffith declared the dog vicious a month ago but declined to have him euthanized.
Instead, she ordered Mickey to be neutered and defanged and gave an animal-rights group 30 days to find a facility to take him.
The Feb. 20 attack left 4-year-old Kevin Vicente with a broken eye socket and jaw. The boy has months, if not years, of reconstructive surgery ahead of him.