Youth injured during attack by pit bull

By Joe Cressman, jcressman@mysuburbanlife.com
www.chicagosuburbannews.com Elmhurst Press
Tue Nov 06, 2007

Halloween turned a little scarier than usual for one Elmhurst boy.

Eight-year-old Eric Gibas suffered minor injuries after he was attacked by a pit bull Oct. 31 along Third Street between Glenview and Glade avenues.

The child was taken to the emergency room of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital that night with about 10 small bites to one of his legs and an arm. He’s using crutches for a few days but has bounced back quickly, said his mom, Nancy Gibas.

“He’s resilient,” she said. “He doesn’t know how lucky he is, but I sure do.”

The attack took place at about 3:45 p.m. as Eric and a friend were about to start trick-or-treating. The dog, Diego, had been chained up in the backyard of his owner’s home a few blocks away.

Apparently, the dog ran free of its chain after a spring attachment broke and jumped the fence, said Sgt. Michael Burrows of the Elmhurst Police Department.

Jim Erickson, an off-duty Elmhurst firefighter, noticed Diego was loose when the dog ran through some wet concrete he was pouring. A few minutes later, he saw the dog begin to chase Eric.

“I don’t think he’s a bad dog. Actually, he’s a friendly dog, but the kid started screaming and swinging his candy bag at him, and I think the dog wanted to play,” said Erickson.

But the boy’s screams seemed to incite the dog, he said. Erickson ran over and managed to break Diego’s grip on Eric’s leg by punching the dog in the jaw. His wife had already called 911, and Erickson restrained the dog until officers arrived minutes later.

“I’m no hero, trust me on that,” Erickson said. “I was just in the right place at the right time. But the kid could’ve got mauled up pretty bad, I think.”

That’s why Eric’s parents and residents in the area are surprised Diego was returned to its owner.“

That’s the $1 million question,” said Diane Quinlen of the 500 block of West Third Street, a friend of the Gibases. “First of all, there are many little children in our neighborhood. I have little ones myself and most neighbors are horrified and very concerned.”

Nancy feels the same way.

“What am I supposed to do?” she said. “Do we ignore this? One neighbor said, ‘I’m terrified to go outside because of what happened.”

The owner was cited for dog at large and for not displaying the proper tags, Burrows said. The dog has no history of other attacks, he said.“

We have no documentation on that dog. And there’s none with the county either,” he said.

The incident doesn’t warrant taking the dog from its owner, he said.“

One of the things our animal control officer told me is, if this was a poodle or a schnauzer, would we be having this conversation? No, but because it’s a pit bull ... In Elmhurst, we don’t discriminate based on the breed of dog. Some pit bulls are bred to be (mean), but does that mean every pit bull is?”

For Gibas, Quinlen and other neighbors, that’s not enough. They said the dog has attacked before, even though it’s not documented.

“I don’t know what would be severe enough to constitute attack,” said Quinlen. “All I was thinking was, ‘What if the dog had latched onto his neck?’ It could’ve been a fatal incident.”