Dog attack leaves family grieving (NC)

starnewsonline ^ | Apr 14, 2005 | Kristen Gelineau

[Dubya]

Victim’s family and neighbors say police ignored complaints

PARTLOW, VA. - Dorothy Sullivan had been looking forward to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. The 82-year-old widow planned to whip up her family’s favorite Irish soda bread and, as a surprise, her daughter made a festive green shirt decorated with shamrocks and a pot of gold for Ms. Sullivan’s little dog, Buttons.

But the celebration would never happen.

Three days before the holiday, Ms. Sullivan and Buttons, a Shih Tzu, were buried together in the same casket after they were mauled by three roaming pit bulls while Ms. Sullivan was out for a walk in her front yard.

Since the March 8 attack, the dogs’ owner has been charged in Ms. Sullivan’s death, a family has been ravaged by grief, and community members who say they have been terrorized for years by wandering pit bulls are wondering why more was not done to prevent the tragedy.

"I’m lost without her," said Ms. Sullivan’s 57-year-old daughter, Betty Greene. "I used to always say, even when I was a kid, if there’s a saint on earth, it’s her."

Deanna Large, 36, who lives down the road from Ms. Sullivan, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and three misdemeanor counts of allowing a dangerous dog to run loose. If convicted on all counts, she faces up to 13 years in prison.

It’s just the second time prosecutors in Virginia have sought involuntary manslaughter charges in a fatal dog mauling. Fatal attacks Karen Delise, a veterinarian who has studied hundreds of such cases for her book, Fatal Dog Attacks: The Stories Behind the Statistics, found that the number of fatal dog attacks nationwide has held steady at an average of 20 a year, but prosecutors are increasingly charging the dogs’ owners.

"Within the last five years, there’s been a significant increase in owners being charged – it’s almost routine now," Dr. Delise said. "Law enforcement and the judicial system are realizing that, but for the negligence, but for the disregard (by owners), these things wouldn’t have happened."

Ms. Large, free on $10,000 bond, declined requests to comment for this story.

But many of those who live in this rural, woodsy community between Washington and Richmond did not hesitate to pin the blame for Ms. Sullivan’s death directly on the negligence of the dogs’ owner – and that of authorities who they say largely ignored repeated complaints about pit bulls roaming the neighborhood.

Sullivan family attorney Ed McNelis said Ms. Sullivan had called authorities before to complain that dogs had chased her into her house.

"What’s this world coming to when you can’t even walk in your own yard?" asked Ms. Sullivan’s neighbor, Mary Adkins, who said she called animal control several times to complain about roaming dogs. A few years ago, she said two unleashed dogs ripped open the throat of her terrier Pepper while he was playing in her front yard. Pepper eventually recovered.

Shane Owens, who sports a large tattoo of his Rottweiler Leila on his left arm and lives a few houses away from Ms. Sullivan’s, said his nine months’ pregnant girlfriend was walking up their driveway four years ago when a pit bull charged at her, backing her up against their car. Mr. Owens grabbed his pistol and shot the dog dead. He, too, said he repeatedly called authorities to complain about the problem. Close call Eulah Baker said she was working in her yard last summer when three pit bulls suddenly appeared before her. Weak from a recent surgery and in no condition to run, the 65-year-old stood helpless as the largest of the three dogs charged at her. As she screamed for help, the dogs abruptly ran off and Ms. Baker called the police.

"I told them they’re gonna kill somebody – but I thought it would be a child," she said. "I could tell they were killers."

Ms. Baker, Mr. Owens and Ms. Adkins were not sure whether the dogs they encountered belonged to Ms. Large.

Fatal dog maulings can be difficult to prosecute, said attorney Michael Rosenzweig, whose Pittsburgh law firm has handled hundreds of dog bite cases.

"You have to prove that the violation of law goes beyond mere negligence," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "It has to rise to a level of recklessness."

The prosecutor has to prove the dog’s owner had reason to believe the animal had a "dangerous or vicious propensity," he said. That could mean providing evidence of a previous attack or an incident in which the dog barked or lunged at a stranger.

One of the most infamous cases happened in San Francisco in 2001 when Diane Whipple was mauled to death in the hallway of her building. Two neighbors who had been taking care of two 120-pound dogs were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served two years.

According to the latest study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pit bulls were responsible for the largest number of fatal attacks between 1979 and 1998.

"There’s no such thing as an inherently bad dog," said John Booker, president of The All-American Pit Bull Association. "Any dog is capable of doing anything – it’s just what kind of socialization and training the dog has had. ... Maybe there should be an obedience course for owners."

[Skooz]

Oh, geeeeesh.

Here we go.............

[martin_fierro]

Yo ho.

[Sender]

Uh oh, now you done gone and stirred up the pit bull folks.

[dmz]

again

[Phantom Lord]

Let me know when there is a story of people being mauled to death by a golden retreiver or black lab.

[DManA]

We can't go killing wild animals. That puts us on the slippery slope and the nect thing you know people are breaking in killing your canary. At least that's what Rush taught me.

[T.Smith]

Mr. Owens grabbed his pistol and shot the dog dead.

Damn right. Let a pit bull even walk into my yard and it'll be dead. I don't give a damn what the pit bull owners and lovers say, I'd kill it in a heart beat.

[Skooz]

Yep.

I would like to just combine all the Pit Bull, War on Drugs, Creation/Evolution, Abe Lincoln, and South Shall Rise Again threads into one monster huge mega-thread.

Now, that would be cool. It would also probably cull FR's membership by at least 1/10th.

[ambrose]

[Irontank]

Shane Owens, who sports a large tattoo of his Rottweiler Leila on his left arm and lives a few houses away from Ms. Sullivan’s, said his nine months’ pregnant girlfriend was walking up their driveway four years ago when a pit bull charged at her, backing her up against their car. Mr. Owens grabbed his pistol and shot the dog dead. He, too, said he repeatedly called authorities to complain about the problem

Why did this fellow have a gun? Is he part of that Minuteman group? Doesn't he know that he should have cowered in his home (while his girlfriend fended off the dog attack) and called the police?

[Skooz]

Most people would not know a "Pit Bull" if they tripped over one.

I have a Boxer and am asked "Is that a Pit Bull?" almost every time I walk him around the neighborhood.

Morons.

[Dog]

LOL!

[Trust but Verify]

Any dog is capable of doing anything –

BS. I've never heard of a yorkie killing a human being. Why do people defend these breeds that have the capacity and the temperament to kill or maim people?

[truthkeeper]

If convicted on all counts, she faces up to 13 years in prison.

Not enough.

[Dog]

I have a daschund who thinks she is a pit bull.

[Sterco]

Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up.

[GoLightly]

Smoking...

[RegulatorCountry]

I've known people who had pit bulls as pets, prior to all this uproar, and they're actually decent dogs. Careful playing tug with them, though. Powerful jaws, which is what makes them more lethal than virtually all other breeds when trained to attack, or when abused.