Timmy Hughes, Wisconsin
Mom's Tale from Miranda Riane

11/16/07

Hello. My story is probably not unlike most you have read. On November 16th, 2007 my son, Timmy, 8, came home from school, tossed his backpack at me, and told me he was going across the street to play with the child who had just moved into the neighborhood a week earlier. I had met the parents twice before, and felt comfortable letting my son play with the new boy.

Not even an hour later, from within my house, I heard a child's panicked scream. I did not recognize it as my son's scream, which I can normally pick out of a crowd of a million screaming children, because it was past the "I fell off my bike and scraped my knee," scream. My first thought was one of the kids from the neighborhood had gotten struck by a car. I froze for a moment, not wanting to go outside. After a second, I made my way through my house only to be greeted at the door to my own son who was holding his arm, screaming, crying, and bleeding. His words were so jumbled, I couldn't understand what he was saying.

Right behind him was the woman, Holly Mertens, from across the street, the mother of the child my son as playing with. All I heard from her was "pitbull," and "bitten." The words didn't make any sence to me as my attention moved again to my son. He was walking in circles in my living room, clutching his arm, shaking. He didn't seem to understand much of what I was saying either. I was finally able to get the story from Holly.

My son was playing in the back yard with her son, when my son ran past her dog, named Boss, that was chained to a tree outside. At the same time, a woman from down the street was walking her black lab down the sidewalk, in front of the Mertens home, aggrivating Boss. He tried to reach the woman and her dog, and when he was unable to, lashed out at my son, grabbing him by the left arm, shaking him violently, tossing him to the ground.

The Mertens fifteen year old son saw the attack from inside their home and rushed out, pulling the dog off. How the teenager was unharmed, I will never know. At this point, my son was running across the street for home.

I called 911 and an ambulance showed up, as well as a city police officer. At this time, my son was sitting on the couch, still screaming. I stayed pretty much out of their way, so at that point I did not see the injury on his arm. The police officer asked a couple of questions, my name, my sons name, address, phone number, asked me to get in touch with him again when I returned from the ER, and left to go across the street and speak with the owners of the dog. I followed my son in the ambulance to the hospital, where we were told this particular hospital did not have a surgeon available, and his injury was too severe to be taken care of there.

He would need to be transported to another hospital. That's when I gotsight of my son's arm for the first time. It was open, like a mouth, peices of his arm were falling off his shirt sleeve, and onto the ground. It is so hard trying to keep a normal color to your face when you can feel yourself go white. To tell your child that his injury doesn't look that bad, when you know it is the worst wound you've ever seen in your life.

Before leaving the hospital for the next, Ms. Mertens did contact the hospital to check on my son's injuries and how he was doing. I spoke with her myself. At no point did any member of law enforcement contact the hospital or me to ask how he was doing, to add to the police report what his injuries actually were. Had he, they would have found out that his arm was broken, and severely torn open due to the attack. Yet the officer simply closed the case after allowing the dog to be quarantined at home.

In Waushara County, where I reside, this is against the dog ordinences. In order to be quarantined at home, the dog must be current on the rabies vaccine. He was not. The dog was over two months behind on his shots. Of course, that did not make it into the police report. Nor did the fact that it was the dogs second bite, as he had done the same to Holly Mertens in the past. I find it odd how I knew that information regarding the dog quarantine law, yet a member of the Wautoma police department seemed to so easily overlook it.

I contacted the sheriffs department when I reached the second hospital, to speak with the responding officer, per his request, after I found out my son would be in need of emergency surgery right away that night, and was told by the dispatcher he no longer needed to speak with me, that all the information he needed was recieved by the owner of the dog.

Never once to date has any member of the police asked how my son was doing, or what his injuries were. In fact, the officer rushed through the report, making it only five sentences long, never mentioning the lack of rabies shots, or the fact it was this dogs second bite.

My son came through surgery and was awake early the next morning. Despite the pain medication, he cried because of how much it hurt. His world was turned upside down. He remained in ICU for three long days and nights. My hat does go off to the hospital he stayed at, because they spoiled him rotten. He was the only child in that ward, so they fell all over him, going as far as to have the kitchen chef make him pizza, his favorite, almost every day for lunch and dinner. Even the
cleaning lady, a grandmotherly type, would spend a few minutes by his bedside, keeping him company, making him feel special.

When we finally did get back home, I found out from Holly the things the officer choose not to include. I became angry. Angry at the dog owner, angry with the police for the lack of policework, angry at stupid people who don't take care of their dogs.

I have four dogs myself, and everyone is socialized, loved, and up to date on each and every vaccine/shot the vet can think of.

I kept and continue to wonder, why have a dog if you are going to chain it up in the yard and forget about it?

Isn't the point of having a dog so that you can spend time with it...?....love it....?....bring it into your home as part of the family?

They don't use the term "man's best friend," for no reason. Dogs WANT to be inside. They crave that affection from humans as we do. Being forgotten is no life. I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads "Friends don't chain friends, bring dogs inside." And it is there for a reason.

I believe dogs learn what they are from their owners. Chaining and forgetting a dog outside only breeds frustration.

Frustration turns to aggression. Aggression resolves in someone getting hurt. And who can you blame for this? The owners, not the dog.

To anyone who disagrees with me, put yourself in the dogs paws for a moment. Wrap a chain around your neck, isolate yourself from everyone you know, but keep yourself close enough so you can watch them, but not interact with them for years. Let everyone you know and love forget about you, walk past you like you are an object rather than something able to feel and love. Then tell me that sort of life does not make you so confused, so angry inside, that you can rationalize your behavior.

You can't. When we take on the responsibilty to bring a dog into our lives, we have to understand they are work, they are expensive, and they require time and energy. If your dog does not, than you aren't doing something right, and someone will pay the penalty for it.

A reporter did come out to do a story on my son's bite. Holly stated the dog bit only because he thought my son was an animal, and let go on his own. I was disgusted with this, because her teenage son risked himself to help my son, and she denied her son that appreciation in order to defend herself against my words, that she is the reason the dog is aggressive.

The police told the reporter that my son had provoked the attack by running past the dog. Provoking an attack I would think would be jabbing at a dog with a stick, teasing, taunting, being cruel to where the dog felt he was in danger and was protecting himself. The officer couldn't even keep his own story straight, because on the report he himself filled out for the dept. of health, he stated twice the bite was UNPROVOKED.

I have always respected the police, as I always felt they have a tough job to do, and are often hated for no reason. However, I have lost so much respect for members of law enforcement since this has happend. Laziness to do a job they are paid to do, and the attempt to cover it up by pointing a finger at MY SON, will do it everytime. When confronted with the officers two sided story about whether it was provoked or unprovoked, the chief of police shrugged his shoulders and walked away. He knew it and I knew it, the officer messed up. Citations should have been given for being behind on the rabies. I pay for my dogs to be current, why shouldn't they? I guess they see it as too much money to spend on "just an animal." I see it as money well spent to ensure the health of my furry friends.

Holly Mertens does not own her home. She is a renter. A renter without insurance, therefore, no lawyer will handle my case to award my son any money he has coming to him. He will be scared forever, emotionally and physically. In the city of Wautoma, you are allowed to own up to two dogs, unless you have special permission from the city councel to own more.

I was given special permission because my vet history was great, and my dogs are socialized animals who don't bite and are kept inside. Holly asked for permission to keep her extra dogs, however she was denied at the city meeting, which I attended, but was given three months to find another place for her dogs to go, aside from the two border collies she has. Her two male intact pitbulls have to find another place to live. She has until April 15th of this year to do so.

She stated in the city meeting, that her boyfriend owns some acerage in another town, approximately 10 miles away, and would like to keep the dog there.

The first thing that popped into my head was what kind of life does that dog have living ten miles away, in the woods, alone, chained to a tree? Summers here get hot, winters brutally cold. While most dogs are enjoying air conditioning and heat during those times, these poor dogs will be left outside to face the elements, chained to a tree. Hopefully, the family will be able to drive ten miles away at least twice a day to make sure the dog has not spilled his water, or that his water has not become too hot from the sun, or frozen over in winter. Sounds like a great life, hey? Any dogs dream. This is not loving their dog, it is cruelty.

I do plan on keeping tabs on this dog, making sure I have my camera handy, ready to take any photos of this dog if the requirements like food/water/shelter are not provided to him on a regular basis, but I am left knowing I can't do anything about his mental state or happiness.

For this dogs entire life, he has known nothing but misery. I can't get past that or understand how anyone could or would do that to an animal.

The scary thing remains, is that this woman has seven children. Two twins, one and a half years old. A three year old. A seven year old autistic son. A nine year old, and two teenagers inside her home. That dog will bite again, as her other dogs will to because they are kept in the same conditions as Boss is. At some point, her children will be hurt, if not killed by her inability to socialize her dogs, and she will have noone to blame but herself.

The police seem uninterested in doing anything about the living conditions of these animals. We do not have a humane society in my county, only a humane officer, who doesn't seem to be interested either. Where do you go from here? Who do you contact? Where can you go for help to help not only future victims of a dog attack, but also the dogs? It is frusterating, and it hurts.

In the end of things, I know my son and I are very lucky. I still have my son here with me. This attack could have ended his life so very easily. I thank whoever is upstairs for keeping my son from any further injuries that day. The victims in these types of cases are the ones that are bitten as well as the ones that are bitting. I hope we all do our part in changing the lives of dogs everywhere that are shackled to a tree or left for forgotten.

Dogs feel sadness too. They feel loneliness. We are supposedly the smart ones, the ones left to care for them, lets start doing just that to prevent another bite on a child, a childs death, and the quality of life for all dogs.

Thank you for reading my son's story. And thank you for reading Boss's story. My son has a voice, but Boss does not. He relies on his owner, who obviously doesn't care. My heart goes out to any victim of a dog bite. I know there are parents out there who have had so much more taken from them than my son and I have from an animal attack.

I am so sorry.

Miranda Riane and Timmy Hughes