How Madison County dog got loose
still unknown

www.onlineathens.com

By JOE VANHOOSE
Story updated at 12:22 am on 10/22/2009

Investigators still don't know exactly how a dog broke loose from its chain and attacked a 5-year-old boy inside a neighboring house Friday in Hull.

Madison County Animal Control Officer Jack Huff plans to interview the child's family today about the attack, which sent the boy to an Athens hospital.

The boy's mother responded quickly and pulled the 86-pound Akita off her son, preventing him from getting hurt any worse, officials at the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter said.

"It was a head wound, bless his heart," said Tanya Pfeiffer, who was working at the shelter Saturday afternoon when the dog's owner brought it in to be euthanized. "It was just a horrible, horrible situation. Had his mother not been there, that dog could have killed him."

Just before 5 p.m. Friday, the dog got off its steel runner cable and ran into a neighboring home in the Hidden Falls subdivision off Glenn Carrie Road between U.S. Highway 29 and Georgia Highway 72, Huff said.

"It went right into the kitchen where the boy was and mauled him," Pfeiffer said. "The mother basically had to pick the dog up and throw him back outside."

The child was taken by ambulance to an Athens hospital and released Saturday, Huff said.

Huff cited the dog's owner for letting the dog get loose.

Under Georgia's dangerous dog law, the owner could have kept the dog if he registered, enclosed and carried liability insurance on it.

But Madison County Commission Chairman Anthony Dove and Huff convinced the owner of dog, whose name Madison County authorities are withholding until the investigation is complete, to turn the dog in to the animal shelter Saturday evening.

"The owner signed the dog over to Animal Control, and they signed it over to us," said shelter Director Susan Fornash. "It didn't looked like it had been kept outside, but it was acting strangely."

The dog had an OK temperament when it arrived at the shelter, Pfeiffer said. But Pfeiffer was not surprised the dog acted aggressively when it got loose from its cable.

"When you chain an animal up, you're asking for trouble," she said. "It makes the dog more territorial and aggressive."

Friday's mauling was the 43rd dog-on-human bite called in to Madison County officials this year, Huff said.

Madison County commissioners will discuss an amendment to local law Monday that would give the animal control officer the right to take dogs and euthanize them after one human attack.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, October 22, 2009

 

Madison ponders dog law
after 5-year-old attacked

www.onlineathens.com

By JOE VANHOOSE
Story updated at 11:49 pm on 10/20/2009

A dog attacked a 5-year-old boy in his home in Hull on Friday evening, officials say, and the attack has Madison County commissioners looking at ways to strengthen dog laws in the county.

A dog attacked a 5-year-old boy in his home in Hull on Friday evening, officials say, and the attack has Madison County commissioners looking at ways to strengthen dog laws in the county.

The dog, an 86-pound Akita, got loose from a steel runner cable in its yard about 5 p.m. Friday, Madison County Animal Control Officer Jack Huff said.

It went into an adjoining yard in the Hidden Falls subdivision and got inside the boy's house through an open door, he said.

"It was a serious attack," Huff said Tuesday. "When I got there, they were taking the boy with his mom away in an ambulance."

The boy was taken to an Athens hospital and was released Saturday, he said.

Huff and Madison County Commission Chairman Anthony Dove had the pet owner surrender the dog, which was euthanized Saturday.

The dog was wearing a harness that was attached to the steel cable, said Huff, who still is investigating the attack. It may have rolled over and somehow freed itself from the cable, he said.

Huff cited the dog's owner, whom authorities aren't identifying until the investigation is complete, for allowing the dog to get loose.

Commissioners are scheduled to discuss a proposed local law about dangerous dogs at the commission's regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

"We'd like to increase the punishment to where we can confiscate the dog immediately," Dove said. "It would be at the animal control officer's discretion."

Under Georgia law, dangerous dogs - dogs that bite or attack someone without provocation - can remain with their owner if the owner registers and encloses the animal and carries liability insuranceon it.

The new county amendment would give the animal control officer the right to take the dog and euthanize it after one attack, Dove said.

"We want to make the law more stringent here," Dove said.

Friday's incident was the second major dog attack in Northeast Georgia in just more than two months. In August, a pack of feral dogs mauled and killed Lothar Karl and Sherry Allen Schweder in Oglethorpe County.

Oglethorpe County officials already were drafting a new animal control ordinance when a pack of dogs killed the Schweders on a dirt road near their home northeast of Lexington on Aug. 14.

The new Oglethorpe ordinance will give county code enforcement officers authority to enforce state laws already in place.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Wednesday, October 21, 2009