Crowbar used to stop savage pitbull attack

A pitbull that attacked another dog in Hastings on Tuesday had to be pried off with a crowbar.

A man who was cycling with the pitbull on a lead was pulled off his bike when it rushed a black labrador, a witness said.



Dog-control officers have now impounded the pitbull.



It's not known how badly the labrador or its owner were injured, but the woman was understood to have received bites to her hand. The attack occurred about 7am on Heretaunga St, near Riverslea Rd.



A witness said the pitbull, which was wearing a red bandanna, couldn't be controlled by its owner. "The guy had it on a lead but it just took off and pulled him off his bike."



The witness, who didn't want to be named, took a crowbar from his vehicle and ran to the other dog owner's aid. "I went over to it and stabbed the crow bar in its mouth and levered it open to get it off the other dog."



The man said the pitbull's owner was apologetic at first, but became aggressive when confronted by other passersby.



"People started telling him he should have had a muzzle on it and he got quite aggressive, saying he would smash over the people, then he took off."



Having seen the attack, the man said he would now back moves to ban pitbulls.



"It could have been pretty nasty if it had been a child or a smaller dog."



Hastings District Council community safety manager Phil Evans said dog-control officers impounded the pitbull.



They were waiting on more details on the attack from police, who interviewed the dog owners and witnesses, and investigating what charges could be laid.



Under Hastings dog bylaws, all pitbulls are classified as menacing, and must be muzzled and on a lead while in public.
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Residents fight back against pitbull attacks

Law enforcement officials are investigating two separate pitbull attacks in as many days this week on North Whidbey.

Wednesday night, an Oak Harbor police officer shot and killed a pitbull that charged at him on NE First Street, Oak Harbor Police Chief Rick Wallace said. The officer was responding to a report that the aggressive dog had attacked a man and his daughter, who took shelter in a neighbor’s house.



Nobody was injured in the attack, but that wasn’t the case Thursday night in the Rolling Hills development south of Oak Harbor.



Jim Murdy, a Diane Avenue resident, explained that he was working in his yard at around 4 p.m. and went to check on his 5- and 6-year-old grandsons. He heard a “blood curdling” yelp and turned to see a pitbull attacking his small dog, a Pembroke Welsh corgi named Ringo.



Murdy hit and kicked the pitbull as hard as he could, but it didn’t seem to faze the dog. The pitbull dragged Ringo underneath the motorhome, so Murdy went to grab a hedger as a weapon.



“I thought, ‘you ain’t going to kill my dog, especially in front of me,’” he said.



Then he heard his wife, Sandi, screaming on the porch, where the pitbull had cornered Ringo. Sandi Murdy grabbed a broom and hit the dog, bending the broom.



“When I hit the dog she would just look at me,” she said. “I thought she was going to come after me.”



Jim Murdy said he cut the pitbull on the shoulder with the hedger and pushed hard enough that the motor stopped. It caused a laceration, but again the dog barely flinched as it was intent on attacking the corgi.



At that point, Jim Murdy grabbed the pitbull by the collar and it bit him on the hand, causing serious-looking puncture wounds. He finally was able to grab the dog around the neck and held it on the porch until deputies and animal control arrived.



Island County Animal Control Officer Carol Barnes said the pitbull wasn’t aggressive toward her or the two deputies when they got there. A neighbor woman who owns the dog was very upset about what had happened. She said the dog escaped after her son left a gate open.



“She’s led us to believe that the dog is going to be euthanized,” Barnes said. “She loves the dog very much and this is a difficult decision for her to make. She is being very cooperative.”



According to Barnes, the dog is a 13-year-old female that the family got from a pitbull rescue group in Seattle. The owner’s daughter said the dog has a history of being aggressive towards other canines, but has never bitten a person before.



Ringo the corgi suffered several bites and went to the veterinarian for treatment Thursday night. Jim Murdy headed to the hospital for treatment.



“I thank God we’re not burying one of my grandchildren,” Sandi Murdy said, noting that the dog attacked just a few feet from where the children were playing.



As for the dog that was shot in Oak Harbor, Wallace said the owner appeared to be suffering from dementia and he’s unsure whether the man will face any charges.



Terry Sampson, Oak Harbor’s animal control officer, said he had previously responded to a report of the pitbull aggressively barking at people. He said he doesn’t hesitate to call for backup when dealing with aggressive dogs and was sympathetic to the police officer.



“From what I know, the dog charged the officer a couple of different times,” he said. “There comes a point when you have to make a decision.”

North Fla. child apparently attacked by a pitbull

CITRA - Authorities say a child was apparently attacked by a pit bull in north Florida.




The 2-year-old child's mother told authorities that her son was riding his tricycle between her and her neighbor's home on Thursday when she heard him crying and saw him covered in blood.



The woman told authorities that he was bitten by a pit bull. The child was bitten on the left side of head and face and had two puncture wounds on his scalp. Authorities said the wounds weren't life threatening.



The deputy captured the dog and animal services quarantined two pit bulls because of conflicting reports as to which dog had bitten the boy. The dogs weren't up-to-date with their shots. After a 10-day quarantine they will be euthanized because their owners said they don't want them.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/aug/13/officials-north-fla-child-apparently-attacked-pitb/life-pets/

Pit bull mauls 7-year-old boy in Warren

A 7-year-old Detroit boy is recuperating today after being mauled by a pit bull that broke loose and rushed a group of children in front of 8702 Maxwell in Warren.


The child, Khalil Rocks, was rushed to St. John Hospital, Detroit, where he received several stitches to close severe wounds to his head, legs and arms.

The boy escaped more serious injuries when a neighbor saw what was happening and grabbed a flower pot and struck the dog in the head, causing it to let go of the boy.

"The boy is recovering today at home and neighbors tell us it was out of character for the dog to do something like this," Warren Detective Lt. Michael Torey said Friday.

Police said this is the second time Khalil has had an encounter with a vicious dog. He was attacked by a pit bull and severely bitten in Detroit when he was 3 years old.

Torey said the incident occurred at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday in the 8700 block of Maxwell. Neighbors said the dog broke loose from a chain restraint in his unfenced yard and ran after a group of children.

"Khalil fell down and the dog attacked and bit him for several minutes," Torey said. "A next-door neighbor, Timothy Anderson, saw this happening and ran over and slugged the dog in the head with a flower pot."

The dog then ran off to his back yard. Warren firefighters attended to the boy and then rushed him to the hospital.

The owner of the dog told Warren Detective Kevin Borycz that the dog was a house dog. Neighbors told police the only problem they had with the dog was that he barked often and loud but had never seen him roaming through the neighborhood.

The dog has valid license tags through 2011.

"The homeowner was emotionally upset and said the dog had never done this before," Torey said. "She said she once had a fence around her yard but the city made her take it down for some reason."

Torey said the dog's owner could be charged with harboring a vicious animal, a four-year felony. Police said the dog's owner also could be charged with being neglectful.

The dog is at the Macomb County Animal Shelter where it will be kept for 10 days. According to police, the owner said she doesn't care if the dog is euthanized.

Torey said police don't know if the children were harassing the dog.

Montreal woman attacked by 2 pit bulls

A Montreal woman is in hospital after being attacked by two pit bulls in the Hochelaga Maisonneuve district, police say.


The 44-year-old woman, whose identity hasn't been disclosed, was bitten on her arms and back near Tree-City Lumber & Plywood by Notre-Dame East and Sicard streets on Friday morning.

Port of Montreal employees found the woman after she also injured herself trying to climb a barbed-wire fence to escape the attack. She suffered non-life threatening injuries and remains in hospital.

One of the two dogs, thought to be the more aggressive one, was captured but police were still hunting for the other until about 10:30 a.m. when they decided to pull back their search in hopes that it would come out of hiding.

Neglected Pit Bulls

The badly damaged ear of Duke, one of five pit bull terriers taken from the manufactured home of Darrell Keith Cathey, 24, of 218 Blackfoot Trail in the Regency Mobile Home Park, stands outside of the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center Friday, Aug. 6, 2010 in Iowa City. Cathey is in jail on 13 charges, including eight charges of animal neglect. According to the official report, the conditions inside the trailer were deplorable with blood, feces and urine. (Brian Ray/The gazette)

An Iowa City man has been charged with animal neglect after Johnson County sheriff’s deputies say they found five pit bulls with no food or water inside a trailer with blood, feces and urine.

“I’ve never heard or seen it myself where they were this bad,” said Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek.



Darrell Keith Cathey, 24, of 218 Blackfoot Trail, is in jail on 13 charges, including eight charges of animal neglect, three of which are for serious animal neglect.



Deputies were dispatched to the trailer Monday for a welfare check after receiving a tip about several dogs living inside that were reported to be left in their kennels for extended periods of time, according to Detective Doug Gwinn.



Cathey told deputies by telephone that he was in Chicago and was on his way back to the trailer.



Officials say they found five pit bulls with no food or water, and that Cathey had made no arrangements for the dogs’ care while he was away.



“I think there were some fresh wounds on the animals,” Sheriff Pulkrabek said. “Some blood.”



Johnson County deputies called in Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Services to assist with the five dogs found inside the mobile home.



“I saw two dogs confined in a crate within a front room and another dog that was loose,” said Misha Goodman, director of Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Services. “All of the dogs appeared to have injuries of various types.”



Goodman said those injuries include “lots of puncture wounds, lots of rips and tears, mostly of the head areas.”



“The puncture wounds are from other animals,” Goodman said. “Thee are rips and tears and punctures that would be generally from other dogs, like biting, ripping, [and] tearing.”



Goodman said a dog could sustain similar injuries by getting his head stuck in a machine, though the puncture wounds on the dogs indicate “teeth wounds.”



The dogs also have a significant amount of scratches and scars all over their bodies.



“Some will need major surgery,” Goodman said. “Some of their wounds will heal, through they will continue to have scaring.”



Goodman believes some of the dogs have suffered injuries that they will never fully recover from. One dog, Duce, has swollen paws due to multiple puncture wounds. Goodman fears he may have muscle and tendon damage. Another dog, Duke, had one of his ears severely damaged. Officials say Duke was hospitalized for two days.



Goodman said all of the dogs are receiving antibiotics.



The Sheriff’s Department is investigating this incident, though they are not confirming suspicions of dog fighting.



“If someone came to us and said, ‘Well, I know for a fact the person’s been dog fighting,” then we’d be looking into it,” Sheriff Pulkrabek said. “Right now, it’s just a matter of animal neglect.”



Goodman said Iowa City Animal Services has dealt with another complaint involving Cathey.



“At that time, the complaint was that the owner was breeding dogs and possibly fighting dogs,” she said.



Goodman said their investigation did not find any evidence of dog fighting, but Cathey admitted he was breeding dogs.



Cathey was charged Thursday. He was in the Johnson County Jail Friday morning on a $6,000 cash bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. at the Johnson County Courthouse.