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.
You are maybe smarter than you know. Aside from diverting risk of being mauled or killed, you (perhaps unwittingly) acted wisely on the fact that the gal had these dogs at all -- a flag, I'd say a red one. It reveals something about her common sense, the same way extra-long fingernails reveal things about women (serious priority ISSyews).
I figure women have been humanizing pets since day one, so it's not unnatural or new. But I think in our current culture it's gone to extremes, where pet chains refer to their customers as "pet parents" and dog (and cat) owners refer to themselves as so-and-so-s "mommy" or "daddy." No wonder so many pets end up dominant. But when it's a shitzu or a silly cocker spaniel or a muttly, so what? I mean, the worst (except for morons who leave dogs unattended near infants) that can happen ain't much.
But when it's a Rottweiler or a pit bull? For a woman who thinks of the critter as her own offspring? Stuff like this happens. :^)
Hooray, Kanawa!
Beautiful tribute.
They are bred for physical traits... their mental attitude is wholly dependant on training (or lack thereof) and treatment. If you abuse an animal or harm it, expect it to get payback... they do have some intelligence and do understand the concept of self defense and removing a threat to them.
Most dog attacks on kids results from the kids teasing the dogs or harming them. My aunt’s miniature Poodle is a perfect example. Her grandchild choked the dog and nearly killed it. I wouldn’t trust that dog alone in a room with a toddler for a split microsecond. Yet, my 80 pound German Shepherd tolorates being used as a rocking horse, being hugged and dragged around by his collar by my 22 month old daughter because he knows she isn’t trying to hurt him just playing.
I’ve seen dogs like Black Labradors that needed killing real bad because they were quite vicious. Mainly from abuse, neglect and cruelty. It’s ALL training and treatment.
Mike
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