Posted on 06/23/2010 9:13:19 PM PDT by Chet 99
Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
MIDDLETOWN — The father of an 11-year-old girl mauled by a pit bull in mid-May is set to appear in civil court Monday at New London Superior Courthouse.
Thomas Sheehan, of 331 Timber Ridge Road, Middletown, was allegedly hosting a family party when his daughter was viciously attacked by an unleashed pit bull. The dog belongs to the son of Sheehan’s girlfriend, the 11-year-old’s mother, Merryl Simon Macek, said.
According to Macek, her daughter suffered severe injuries from the attack including five deep lacerations and two puncture wounds under the jaw. Three-fourths of the girl’s right eyelid was also ripped off.
Though she was not present when the incident occurred, Macek said 911 was not called nor was the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.
“My concerns are why this was never reported, and why no one has yet to be held accountable,” Macek said via e-mail. “Why was this neglect and endangerment not reported to DCF by the Middletown PD? And why were no charges brought against the dog owner for the leash laws, lack of registration and vaccination?”
“This was a horrible tragedy, a life-altering injury to my daughter that has spiraled into a mess of continuous neglect by every agency in the system.”
According to Connecticut court records, Sheehan has no prior criminal record.
Hillary Federico can be reached by e-mail at hfederico@middletownpress.com.
Let me guess: the owner has shoulder and ankle tattoos and drives a Camaro.
Traggic. So unnecessary.
Nah, the Camaro is up on blocks on the lawn out in front of the mobile manufactured home.
Were the police ever called why did the mother not report the incident?
lol!!! Of course, that went without saying.
Is this sentence just ambiguous, piss poor reporting, or does this just indicate the screwed up trashiness of the people involved.
A family that would own a pit bull, are the same types who trowel on eye-shadow and lipstick on an 11-year old. These people are of the stupid variety.
We have had two incidences with Pit Bulls in my neighborhood lately. One was my wife was walking our white Lab and a Pit Bull got loose and attacked our dog. Fortunately only only a couple of bites on out dog. We reported the incident.
Just today a couple of doors down one got loose and attack a man. I was coming back from my morning walk and was wondering what the fire trucks, ambulance and police were doing on my street. Found out quickly.
My attitude towards Pitt Bulls has changed lately. Now when I’m out walking I carry my Bowie knife ready to slice and dice any attacking dog. I would prefer carrying one of my pistols but this being California and all.
Another pit bull attack. Will they ever learn.
Another pit bull attack. Will they ever learn.
Virtually all the pit bulls (and other dogs) who attack have not been spayed or neutered. And lowlifes rarely bother spaying/neutering their pets, and also favor pit bulls because they look "tough". It's the combination of lowlife humans and lack of spay/neutering that accounts for the colossal number of pit bull attacks. I know a couple of nice people who have nice, well-mannered pit bulls (both adopted from shelters) -- both the dogs are "fixed", and it shows in their behavior. Their owners also keep them leashed at all times when they're outdoors.
I don't believe children's services were called, either and she still has the horse.
That wasn’t a pitbull that bit her. It was a chihuahua on steroids!
Hopefully people see that the pattern here extends beyond the breed of dog. In both of your stories, the attacking dog was running loose. That is a pretty big sign that the owner of the dog is irresponsible, and often is the most obvious sign that the dog is being mistreated.
I have recently compiled a little non-scientific study of my own based on the last 30 pit bull attack stories that are listed on this forum. I counted the amount of dogs running loose, being chained up, in packs, breeding pairs, inside the home, and dams with pups to see if there was indeed a correlation. I found that 50% of the dogs involved were running loose, 76% were outside, and a large percentage of the attacks were on unsupervised children. I compared this with data available on the CDC’s website regarding dog attacks and fatalities, and I found that the percentages are similar when you line up the other breeds in such a way. The same irresponsible actions caused each incident. I would take caution around ANY loose dog, because you have no way of knowing if it has even been socialized at all. And I certainly would never allow a small child to be alone with a dog either, as well as not allowing a child to hug a dog or get in its face. They are animals and they communicate differently than we do. What we consider a friendly gesture is often misinterpreted by animals as a threat display.
The fact that many, if not most, Pit Bull owners are lowlifes, who don’t fix or properly train or restrain their Pit Bulls is certainly a contributing factor in the ongoing carnage.
That said, the millions of unaltered Beagles, Yorkies, and Golden Retrievers, etc., owned by lowlife guttersnipes almost never maim anybody, much less kill them.
>>>Hopefully people see that the pattern here extends beyond the breed of dog. In both of your stories, the attacking dog was running loose. That is a pretty big sign that the owner of the dog is irresponsible, and often is the most obvious sign that the dog is being mistreated.<<<
a) While many Pit Bull maulings involve mistreated dogs, running loose, many are unprovoked attacks on family members or friends, from dogs that supposedly had never been aggressive, in the past.
b) Most dogs that are mistreated or are allowed to run loose NEVER seriously injure or kill innocent people. Pit Bulls, Rotties and a handful of other breeds are responsible for nearly all deaths and maimings.
The bottom line is most dog owners will mess up at some point in the 10 to 15 years their dogs live. With most breeds this will not result in a tragedy, with Pit Bulls it often will.
Come on Chet, it was a PARTY! How is that NOT provocation?
I have shoulder tats and used to drive a camaro.
I would never own a pit bull.
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