Posted on 05/19/2007 4:05:05 AM PDT by csvset
A 59-year-old woman was attacked by a friend's pit bull and hospitalized with "horrific" arm injuries, Petaluma authorities said Friday.
This was the second time the dog had bitten Isabel Pollium, said Nancee Tavares, Petaluma's animal services manager.
Pollium was in fair, stable condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital on Friday. The apparently unprovoked attack took place about 11 p.m. Thursday, Tavares said.
In 2005, the 3-year-old purebred, named Dozer, bit Pollium's leg but she declined to press charges, Tavares said. It also bit another dog that year.
The attack on the dog prompted a dangerous dog abatement order to be issued on Dozer, Tavares said.
The order prohibited the dog's being walked without a leash and muzzle and ordered him confined at all other times to his property, a west Petaluma bungalow where two signs warn visitors to beware the pit bull on the premises.
Dozer, who weighs about 90 pounds, is "scary," Tavares said. "We want to euthanize him immediately, because he's too dangerous for the staff, even with security measures."
But a tearful Darlene Haltom, whose adult daughter, Natasha, owns Dozer, described him as a "family dog" and said even Pollium "doesn't want him put to sleep."
Darlene Haltrom said: "He's like my daughter's child. A child misbehaves, you don't put him to sleep, you try to help him, and that's what we wanted to do."
When Pollium stayed at her home the night before, Haltom said, Dozer had slept with her friend on the couch.
Reached by phone at the hospital, Pollium declined an interview request.
Pollium and Haltom were alone in the house when the attack occurred. Haltom said she was in another room and Pollium was on her cell phone in the living room when things went wrong.
The phone rang and Pollium answered, then began yelling for Haltom and rushing over to give her the phone, she said.
"He just stopped her in her tracks," Haltom said, adding that Pollium knew that screaming and yelling and running are "triggers" that upset Dozer.
Haltom said she interceded and Pollium was able to flee and hide in the bathroom.
Haltom reassured her that the bathroom door was closed, she said. But Pollium had not latched it, and when Dozer was let loose he pushed the door open, Haltom said.
Pollium said, "Hi, Dozer," Haltom said, "but he smelled the blood on the floor and he went for her arm again."
Haltom cried throughout a half-hour interview. She occasionally soaked a finger in hydrogen peroxide to treat a scratch left from when she tried to help Pollium.
Speaking about her friend, Haltom said: "In a way it's her fault, and in a way it's not. She knows his triggers - she shouldn't have done that. But a dog shouldn't attack someone. How do you weight that out?"
A magazine, "Training Secrets for Bully Breeds," was on her coffee table; it was among a stack of material Haltom said her family had procured to help train Dozer.
"He's such a good dog, and we do everything in our powers," she said.
Dozer is being held at the Petaluma animal shelter. The law requires a 10-day quarantine to check for rabies before dogs are euthanized, Tavares said, but the procedure can be done immediately if the animal's brain is then sent for testing.
The attack came about three weeks after a 7-year-old Petaluma boy, Roberto Kampfner Jr., was mauled by a neighbor's two Rottweilers. Kampfner, who suffered 20 deep wounds to his legs, returned to school Friday but remains traumatized, his father said.
"He's going to have a lot of mental issues, he doesn't want to be outside, and sometimes he doesn't even want to go into our back yard, which is completely fenced in," Roberto Kampfner said. "He hasn't been able to walk down the street or anything; he's just too scared."
The District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case to see whether to press charges against the Rottweilers' owner.
Tavares said an investigation by Petaluma animal control is under way in the attack on Pollium.
You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.
Once bitten, twice shy???
more like “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” she should have pressed charges the first time.
My neighbor had one of these evil dogs some years ago. It would silently sneak up on me in the back yard and and as soon as it hit the end of the chain it would start barking it’s head off. Scared the crap out of me more than once. It’s name was “Princess”
My heart is just breaking for poor Haltom...
This is not so much an indictment of the breed as it is of nitwit owners. If you need a book to teach you to establish dominance, you shouldn't have the dog.
In my experience, one has to go out of one's normal way to acquire ANY dog. I cannot understand why someone would wish to acquire a pit bull.
Not for me, thanks, and I have had Dobermans and a wolf hybrid, the latter of which was the best dog (and smartest) I have ever had. She’d play with the kids, (pull their sled in winter, wagon in summer), was extremely careful around children (especially toddlers whom she could knock down with one exuberant swipe of her tail), and was a gentle dog, with just two exceptions—she did not like cats or poodles. We just kept her away from those.
Shoot the damned dog!
Which pure breed?
Other than defending a person from harm, any dog that attacks without provocation should be put down immediately.
Great choice for kids, then. [/s]
Get a corgi. They're great with kids.
This was the second time the dog had bitten Isabel Pollium, said Nancee Tavares, Petaluma's animal services manager.
But ...
even Pollium "doesn't want him put to sleep."
Dirt nap for Dozer, institutionalization for Pollium.
That said, the first time that a large dog bites a human in anger, except in cases of break-ins or when the owner has commanded the dog to attack for her own protection, the owner needs to take responsibility and put the dog down. Also, IMHO.
It’s not the dog’s fault. It’s our fault for letting people keep these dangerous beasts in residential neighborhoods as if they were house pets. They should be treated like tigers, and ownership should be licensed with proof of bonding and training.
I hear many pit bulls are friendly. Great. But why get one when you can have a friendly and loyal dog of another breed that doesn’t have the power to rip your face off if he has a bad day? It would be like getting a cougar instead of a house cat. Stupid and dangerous in a crowded neighborhood or if you have kids. There is a reason that street thugs like these dogs and thats because they are dangerous and hence macho.
If this thing weighs 90 pounds, it isn't a pure bred pit. Pits are typically 30 pounds, and almost never over forty. Probably a mix of Mastiff or Cane Corso with a Pit.
"An elderly Petaluma woman suffered major injuries to her right arm Thursday night when she was attacked by an intact male pit bull terrier that had bitten her before."
link"Intact (unneutered) male dogs represented 80% of dogs presented to veterinary behaviorists for dominance aggression, the most commonly diagnosed type of aggression.
Intact males are also involved in 70 to 76% of reported dog bite incidents."
link
Unless one is a responsible breeder there is no excuse to keep an intact male.
“He’s like my daughter’s child. A child misbehaves, you don’t put him to sleep,”
Once again, a dumb human imagines that an animal is human. Big mistake. This is the fault of the owner. Unfortunate that the dog needs to be euthanized.
Any medium to large size dog has the capability to "rip your face off".
When people tell me these dogs wont bite, my answer is,
” He has teeth doesnt he?”
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