When we hear about biting attacks, most of us think of Austin Harrouff’s face munching or Mike Tyson tasting Evander Holyfield’s ear. However, biting attacks happen with alarming frequency.

Although children bite, we supposedly outgrow this atavistic behavior. Yet, if we routinely resort to mauling with the mouth, a question emerges: How savage is humanity?

10 Brutal Attacks On Prisoners By Prison Guards

10 Mafioso Muncher

In prison, weapons can be improvised from anything—even mouths. On September 9, 2020, Italian daily Il Messaggero reported that a Sicilian Mafia boss bit off and swallowed the pinkie finger on the right hand of a prison guard.

Giuseppe Fanara, 60, attacked the guard during a cell inspection at Rome’s Rebibbia Prison. According to the report, “The finger disappeared, leading a Rome prosecutor to conclude it had been eaten.”^[1]

Nine years into a life sentence, Fanara languished in solitary confinement due to Italy’s 41-bis penal code. The law targeting Mafia bosses not only imposes harsh sentences but also isolation to prevent top gangsters from running criminal enterprises behind bars.

Authorities transferred the Sicilian don to Sardinia’s Sassari high-security prison. He faces new charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrest. Fanara’s mouth wasn’t the only weapon. The prisoner allegedly brandished a broomstick at the other six guards while shouting, “I’ll slit your throats like pigs.”

9 I Don’t Eat Flesh, I Just Drink Blood

In April 2019, Joel Davila bit a chunk out of a gas station attendant’s face in Taunton, Massachusetts. The 19-year-old perpetrator allegedly savaged the Sunoco clerk after the victim attempted to stop Davila from stealing.

While licking blood from his fingers, Davila reportedly uttered, “I don’t eat flesh, I just drink blood.” Witness Michael Keegan secured Davila at the scene until police arrived. He noted that the 19-year-old “hissed at me like a feral cat” and finger-painted with the clerk’s blood.^[2]

Once police arrived, they attempted to locate the severed face flesh. Davila allegedly contradicted his earlier statement: “I think I ate it. You can cut my stomach open to check.”

A judge ordered Davila held without bail at Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental health evaluation. Family members said, “Joel is not stable right now.” In November 2018, Davila was arrested for vandalizing and urinating on the floor of a church.

8 Missing Manhood

In August 2019, a woman escaped her kidnapper by biting off his penis. The unnamed victim fled captivity and knocked on various residents’ doors before eventually making it to a Waffle House in Greenville, South Carolina. Later, authorities discovered registered sex offender Dennis Slaton, 61, covered in blood at his house.

“It was pretty bad, pretty tragic, what happened to me,” said Slaton, who has previous convictions for sodomy and attempted rape. Although the police report did not note how the penis had been severed, Slaton told 7News that his abductee had bitten it off.^[3]

On August 8, 2019, Slaton had picked up the victim at a gas station. Then he pulled a knife on her and forced her into his house. There, he sexually assaulted her and threatened her life. The victim used Slaton’s knife to stab him in the buttocks. Slaton’s address is listed as Jesus Saves Ministries.

7 Rough Roleplay

In September 2019, Oakland County deputies discovered two partially nude women covered in blood in a Rochester Hills, Michigan, residence. They found Allison Thompson Weaver, 44, hovering over a 48-year-old woman with a partially detached ear.

According to the unnamed victim, she had invited Weaver over for drinks. After refusing Weaver’s sexual advances, the victim went to bed, only to awaken to Weaver stripping the victim and strangling her while biting her face.^[4]

During preliminary examinations, Deputy Shawn Hopkins reported, “Weaver told me that they were having consensual sex and that [the victim] was a vampire and that Ms. Weaver was the wolf.” Hopkins also noted that “the outer edge of her left ear appeared to be missing” and that a chunk of cheek flesh “was completely gone . . . possibly bitten off.”

The victim insisted that the role-playing was not consensual. However, she said, “[We kissed] once when our daughters were young.”

6 Uber Attack

Think your job bites? On August 18, 2019, Uber driver Yasser Hadi faced a random attack in midtown Atlanta after dropping off a passenger. Unprovoked, Tasheena Denise Campbell, 26, approached from nowhere and pounced on his Prius.

After destroying Hadi’s windshield wipers and entering his car, she set her sights on him. Campbell lobbed some haymakers and then took a bite out of Hadi’s midsection. Several bystanders videotaped the event, but they failed to intervene until the damage was done.

Police eventually arrested Campbell for battery and criminal trespass. According to the report, she urinated on the station floor, repeatedly rammed her head against the wall, and required restraints.^[5]

“A dog does not bite like this. She’s still biting while I’m pulling for about 30 seconds,” explained Hadi. According to the Uber driver, Campbell not only took a bite out of his ribs but out of “my job, my health, and . . . pocket money.”

Top 10 Unusual Ways People Have Survived Bear Attacks

5 Psychotic Cellmate

On December 4, 2019, Miguel Lucas began lawsuit proceedings against the County of San Diego for an attack while he was in custody. Lucas, 26, claimed that inmate Reginald Harmon attacked him without reason and bit off a large portion of his cheek.

The filing claims that Harmon, 35, had attacked inmates on previous occasions and that even Harmon’s mother had warned authorities about her son’s need for a segregated cell.^[6]

According to Lucas’s attorney, Chris Morris, this incident is part of “a complete lack of direction in making mental health a priority in our jails.” Lucas claimed that the incident gave him PTSD and a large keloid scar due to insufficient treatment.

He also said that defendant Deputy Gustafson observed the 15-minute assault over security monitors but failed to do anything. The plaintiff alleged that Gustafson and other deputies took photos with the piece of cheek. Then they suggested that “[Lucas] could have put up a better fight.”

4 Moment Of Madness

Young women can be savage to one another, especially when exes are involved. On February 3, 2019, the Aura Nightclub dance floor in Dundee became a scene of horrors when 19-year-old college student Danielle Gaffar mauled Kyra Strachan.

The “impulsive” attack began over a former flame. Gaffar admitted to grabbing Strachan’s hair, pummeling her head into the ground, choking and eventually permanently disfiguring her with a savage bite to the cheek. Strachan, 18 at the time of the incident, was dancing when Gaffar attacked from behind. The bite required plastic surgery to secure Strachan’s flapping flesh.

The Scottish court imposed a 16-month sentence on Gaffar. The attack was “entirely out of character,” said defense solicitor Jim Laverty. For Gaffar, this “fleeting moment of madness” drew outrage, death threats, and lost job opportunities.

Despite Gaffar’s insistence that the “loss of self-control . . . will never, ever be repeated again,” Sheriff Thomas Hughes insisted that a custodial sentence was essential.^[7]

3 A Bite Out Of Discrimination

On April 1, 2020, a COVID-19 patient bit a nurse’s face in Guangzhou in southern China. It all started when Okonkwonwoye Chika Patrick, 47, tested positive for coronavirus. He refused medical tests and assaulted nurse Wang Hong when she attempted to stop him from escaping quarantine.

Patrick pushed the nurse to the ground and pummeled her before sinking his teeth into her face. According to police, the Nigerian passport holder was to be charged once he was released from treatment.

The same month, Time magazine published an article about discrimination facing Africans in Guangzhou following the COVID-19 outbreak. Sources noted that landlords monitored African residents’ doors with surveillance cameras, magnetic strips, and alarms as the government insisted that “all Africans must be isolated at home.”

According to another source, a woman and four Ugandan roommates were forcibly quarantined in a hotel, where they were charged $500 each. Additionally, videos have begun circulating of Africans being barred from Guangzhou supermarkets and restaurants, including McDonald’s.^[8]

2 Never Mind The Dog, Beware Of Owner

On January 3, 2019, Alma Cadwalader, 19, bit a jogger on Oakland’s Goldenrod Trail. Jogger Cyndi Stainner admitted she pepper-sprayed Cadwalader’s off-leash shepherd-husky mix, but only to prevent an attack.

Stainner insisted the dog owner hit her in the head, pushed her face into the dirt, and attempted to wrestle away the pepper spray. Then Cadwalader allegedly sank her teeth into Stainner’s arm for 10–15 seconds. “She was literally latched to my arm,” said Stainner.^[9]

Cadwalader’s attorney, Emily Dahm, admitted that her client sank her teeth into the jogger. But Dahm insisted the “bad bite” was in self-defense as Cadwalader attempted to stop Stainner from pepper-spraying the dog. Cadwalader had no previous criminal record. She faced charges of false imprisonment, battery with serious bodily injury, and robbery.

According to Stainner’s friend Sue Hernandez, it is inconceivable that Stainner—a nurse, caregiver, and animal lover—would have harmed a dog unless absolutely necessary.

1 ‘Hold My F—king Cigarette’

During Christmas celebrations in 2018, a prominent businessman brutalized a cricket coach at a Welsh pub. When doctors examined victim Jarrad Davies, 23, they wanted to know what kind of dog had attacked him.

It turned out that the animal was Anthony Wade Mears, 51, the Welsh-born head of Saudi-based Ma’aden Aluminium Company. Mears was home for the holidays. The incident at a Wetherspoons pub in Aberdare began as Davies accidentally bumped into Mears.

Witnesses alleged that Mears uttered “hold my f—king cigarette” before pouncing on Davies. During the attack, Mears bit Davies four times. The victim noted that one chomp to the midsection resembled a “second belly-button.”

Mears denied the allegations until he was confronted with CCTV footage of the event. After pleading guilty, Mears received a 21-month sentence, which was reduced to six months on appeal. Curiously, Mears’s father had been a detective inspector in Aberdare for more than 30 years.^[10]

Top 10 Animal Bites that will Completely Destroy You

About The Author: Abraham Rinquist is the executive director of the Helen Hartness Flanders Folklore Society. A certified ethnomusicologist, he is currently penning “Whoa Man: A Feminist Critique of the Vienna Boys’ Choir.”

You know that you don’t want to get bitten by a crocodile or a shark, but what about something smaller? What about a creature you never thought could hurt you? The truth is, you really don’t want anything biting you at all, but some things are worse than others.

These ten creatures can take a little nibble on a person, but it’s the last thing you’d ever want. Forget about big cats, giant fish with razor-sharp teeth, and whatever’s lurking under your bed at night — make sure none of these things ever take a bite out of you.

Related: 10 Absurd Sleep Habits Of Wild Animals

10 Housecats

A dog can maul a person, so most folks are on guard whenever they cross paths with an aggressive one. On the other hand, Cats don’t seem like much of a threat unless they’re the big cat variety. Housecats are small, and their claws are more of a threat than their mighty yet tiny jaws.

When a housecat bites you, they’re not going to do a whole heck of a lot of damage. Their sharp teeth aren’t going to feel good going into the skin, but you won’t be left with a horribly disfiguring wound in most cases. The real problem that comes from a cat bite is the bacteria found in their mouths.

All animals have bacteria swimming around their saliva, and cats are no exception. Their bites almost always cause infection in people, with as much as 80% of them doing so. One such illness is caused by a protobacterium called Bartonella hensealae. If you get it in your bloodstream, you’re highly likely to contract cat-scratch disease.

There is an average of around 22,000 cases in the U.S. annually, and they almost always come from kittens. Cats also carry Pasteurella multocida, which can become dangerous if left untreated.

9 Brazilian Wandering Spiders

Most people avoid spiders like the plague, as arachnophobia is incredibly common. Still, there are spiders in the world, and occasionally, they cross paths with a human. In most cases, the spider will get out of your way, but they will bite you if they feel threatened. Most spider bites hurt like any other insect bites, but not all of them.

The most dangerous spider bite in the world comes from the Brazilian Wandering spider. They are aggressive and highly venomous spiders found in Brazil and other parts of Central and South America. If they feel threatened, they will bite you, and they have the option of delivering none, some, or all of their venom reserves.

Regardless of the amount of envenomation, a bite from a Brazilian Wandering spider is intensely painful. Its fangs dig deep into your flesh, causing intense burning pain at the site. You will then experience sweating and goosebumps. After 30 minutes, you may experience changes in blood pressure, nausea, abdominal cramping, hypothermia, blurred vision, and symptoms resembling shock.

In some cases, a male will have a long-lasting and painful erection. The most severe bites can result in death if they go untreated, but these spiders rarely inject enough venom to do that. Instead, they reserve some for later and give you an excruciating bite you won’t soon forget.

8 Gila Monsters

Gila Monsters are the only venomous lizards found in the United States, though they can be found as far south as Sonora, Mexico. Typically, these animals are slow-moving and sluggish in nature, so your odds of being bitten by one aren’t high.

Gila monsters are relatively long, growing up to 14 inches (36 cm) in length, though about 20% of that is their tail. They have a large head with small eyes and a strong snout. They hunt small mammals, birds, snakes, insects, and any carrion they find.

They produce venom in glands at the end of the lower jaw, which they propel into their prey. When they do this, a Gila Monster purposefully chews on whatever they’re biting to ensure their venom goes where they want it. You may want to read that again — they don’t bite and withdraw — they chew with long, sharp teeth.

Those teeth can grab hold of tissue, and removing a biting Gila monster is no easy task. They’ll hold on for as long as they want to, and it’s going to hurt. A lot. Gila monster venom is dangerous, though it’s highly unlikely to result in death. Its intended prey succumb to it, but for a human, it’s just going to be a horribly painful experience.

7 Bullet Ants

In the rainforests of Central and South America, there exists a species of ant commonly known as the Bullet Ant. They are large ants that grow to as much as 1.2 inches (30 mm) in length, making them one of the largest ant species.

Bullet ants occasionally come into contact with people, and when this happens, someone is likely to get bitten. That’s the last thing you want because they register the highest on the Schmidt Pain Index with a rating of 4.0+.

Schmidt described the pain from a bullet ant bite as “Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel.” A bite is undoubtedly painful, and many have compared it to being shot, hence the name.

You’ll experience intense pain at the bite location, which will come in “waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours.” Fortunately, a bullet bite won’t kill you (unless you’re allergic). Still, you’ll likely wish you were dead rather than experience that level of intense pain.

6 Monkeys

While people in the west aren’t too concerned with being bitten by a monkey anytime soon, they’re fairly common throughout South America and Asia. Monkeys are a problem in densely populated areas, including Brazil, India, and Indonesia, so there are more people in danger of a bite than you might think.

For their size, monkeys are strong, so you don’t want to be attacked by one. Their primary means of attack is through a bite, and most species have powerful jaws with sharp teeth. A bite from a monkey will result in tissue damage, but the most significant threat comes from bacteria and viral pathogens that call their mouths home.

Like most mammals, monkeys can carry and transmit rabies, which is 100% fatal if left untreated. Symptoms include hallucinations and partial paralysis, so it’s no picnic. Still, it’s also not necessarily the biggest threat, as it is treatable.

Monkeys can pass on Simian herpes via a bite. This can lead to encephalomyelitis, which leads to brain inflammation. It also comes with paralysis, loss of vision, and vomiting. The dangers are real, so if you’re ever bitten by a monkey, seek medical attention immediately.

5 Ticks

Nobody wants to have a tick nibble on them, but they’re more often seen as pesky parasites than potential threats. Interestingly, unlike everything else on this list, when a tick bites a person, they’re unlikely to feel it or even notice. Ticks inject an anesthetic into the skin as soon as they pierce it to avoid detection.

After they pierce the skin, a tick burrows its head as deep as possible, leaving some of its legs and most of its body outside. It then begins to feed on your blood, engorging itself. While the tick’s head is inside snacking on your fluids, it transfers some of its own into you, which is where the real problem lies.

Ticks can cause a myriad of diseases, depending on where you are in the world. Ticks can infect a person with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Q Fever, Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Lyme disease, which is infected via the bacterium Borrelia burgdoferi.

Lyme disease is the biggest threat, most often brought by a tick bite. It can cause severe headaches, facial palsy, arthritis, tendon & muscle pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, and nerve pain, among other things.

4 Rattlesnakes

Getting bitten/struck by any snake will be a memorable event in most people’s lives. After all, snakes carry two long hypodermic needles capable of delivering a large amount of venom. The fangs will hurt you, to be sure, but the real pain comes from the venom, and it can be brutal.

Beyond the potentially fatal types of venom, there are some that cause severe tissue damage and pain. The worst of this is arguably found in rattlesnakes, which inject venom with some of the highest levels of toxicity found in any snake in the Western hemisphere.

When the venom is injected, it immediately goes to work on your tissue and blood. It is hemotoxic, so it results in coagulopathy and necrosis. Essentially, wherever it bites you, your tissue begins to die while it’s still a part of you and your blood forgets how to clot properly.

You can die from a rattlesnake bite should it get you somewhere especially dangerous like your jugular, but most bites aren’t fatal. Antivenom exists, and if it’s administered within six to 48 hours after envenomation, you and your tissue should be safe. Regardless, severe pain is only one of the many gifts a rattlesnake is willing to give its victims.

3 Tsetse Fly

For many people throughout the world, a fly is little more than a pest. Things are a little different in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is where you might encounter the Tsetse fly. These small flies are about the same size as a housefly, but unlike the peskier variety, Tsetse flies bite and feed on blood.

When you’re bitten by a Tsetse fly, you’ll experience some mild pain and irritation at the site, but that’s not the real problem. Like so many insects, the Tsetse fly is a vector. It carries a parasitic organism that causes African trypanosomiasis, otherwise known as African Sleeping Sickness.

If you contract African Sleeping Sickness, you’re going to experience neurological and meningoencephalitic (resembles meningitis and encephalitis) symptoms. These can lead to changes in behavior, a loss of coordination, and the disruption of sleep cycles, hence the name.

Treatment is typically successful if administered before neurological symptoms manifest. Over the years, it has become easier to treat, reducing the number of fatalities, but they still occur. If left completely untreated, the disease is 100% fatal, and thousands succumb to it every year.

2 Humans

Yes, humans (not zombies) are one of the most dangerous things that can bite you. Of course, this isn’t to say that a toddler biting another on the playground is necessarily dangerous outside the tissue damage. Still, a bite from a human can be life-threatening for several reasons.

People have around 700 species of bacteria in their mouths, with the average person housing between 20 and 72 different types. While they’re safe swimming in our saliva, they can cause problems inside the bloodstream. Other animals transmit various threats, but not everything carried by an animal can infect a human.

The problem with a human biting another is that any disease the biter carries can infect the victim. This includes everything from rabies and tetanus to hepatitis and HIV. On top of that, you’ll likely also have an infection spreading from the bite location.

On the one hand, a human bite can deliver a potentially fatal disease and an infection. Still, on the other hand, it’s not the biggest threat out there. After all, there aren’t many people running around snacking on other folks. Still, if you somehow find yourself on another person’s menu, you’re going to need to seek medical assistance immediately.

1 Mosquito

When a mosquito bites, it’s through a highly specialized mouth that includes six parts. You may think they just stab their proboscis into the skin and start sucking blood, but they only do this after their mandibles and maxillae are used to pierce the skin. So, in a way, they do bite down on you, though you’d never feel it.

Mosquito bites don’t often register in the host until they’re done, which is why it’s usually too late to stop them once you notice. Despite their ability to mask the pain from their victim, the bite itself isn’t the biggest threat brought by these little bloodsuckers.

Mosquitoes are often cited as the most dangerous animals in the world, and that’s not an unearned distinction. They are prolific vectors capable of transmitting a host of diseases, including Dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika virus, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria.

Ultimately, malaria is the most dangerous for people, as it causes some 400,000 deaths every year. Mosquitoes kill more humans than any other animal (including ourselves), so it’s not as if it’s only a minor annoyance. For many parts of the world, it’s a constant and deadly threat.