Lucy was attacked, and I'm upset
 

This happened April 29 but I've avoided writing about it here while animal control has been investigating, but I'm so upset right now that I just have to vent. This is an open and shut case, and animal control has been dragging its feet for more than 3 weeks.

Here's what happened: I was walking my three -- two Yorkies and Lucy, a 14-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever -- home from the park at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon on 6 foot leashes. The street is a quiet backstreet with very little traffic, especially at that hour.

I was crossing the street and heard some voices down at the end of the street. I looked back -- later pacing it off to 90 yards away -- and saw a dog on a long leash and a guy who I thought was on a bicycle. (Turns out it was a skateboard). They were in the street but facing toward a playground and I figured it was kids hanging out there and talking. I was not alarmed because I saw the leash and they were nearly a football field away.

Not 20 seconds later, I turned around and a pitbull on a long flexi lead was pulling to my side of the street and attacking an unaware Lucy from behind. He took off a 3-inch chunk of flesh from her right rear leg and literally dragged her about 4 feet down the street until I scared it away. If the Yorkies had not been on the other side of Lucy, one or both would have been killed.

The lunatic, 29 years old, actually screamed at me for being in his way!

After I dropped Lucy off at the vet -- she's had 2 surgeries now totaling more than $2,000 -- I reported it to animal control. They told me their standard answer: they likely couldn't do anything about it if I didn't have a name.

Thankfully, I had my camera with me and snapped some pictures of the guy while he was screaming at me. I put them on Facebook, got a name and address and reported it to animal control within a few days. He never reported it.

That was more than 3 weeks ago! A week ago, I called for an update and the officer said she had contacted the other guy and was waiting on his statement. Suddenly, she said, "Oh, that's right, we did get his statement back."

The guy's statement mirrored mine on all the details. He saw me from down the street, shouted back there for me to get out of his way, then came ahead as he watched me crossing the street to the side of the road.

The difference in his story is he says LUCY ATTACKED HIS DOG and led to the attack! He said she charged out behind a car and surprised his dog.

How, I asked, could she do that and the only injury to her was on the butt? She was bit from behind while walking the other direction! She didn't even know the other dog was coming. And Lucy is 14 years old and sweet. I have dozens of witnesses who can attest to her never attacking another dog.

Regardless, the dog was not under control! It was on a retractible lead anywhere from 16-20 feet! It could literally go anywhere on that street it wanted to. This guy could have stopped. He could have gone out of leash range. He could have changed his direction and avoided us entirely.

The officer told me at the time that she expected to wrap up the case the next day and classify the dog as a Level II. I'm told that's all I can hope for and I'll have to take him to small claims court to get him to pay for medical bills.

A week later, she calls me with the same question. Did Lucy surprise his dog? I told her I explained that to her a week ago. NO! She was walking home and looking the other way. I told her originally I have a witness, and now she wants to interview the witness. Only problem is, he's from Micronesia, and there's a language barrier. I have no confidence the animal control officer is going to have the wherewithal to get his story.

I could go on about how upset I am, but I'll end this for now. Here are some pictures of Lucy's injury and the attacking dog. I cut off the lunatic's face because this is going to end up in court and I don't want to be accused of purposefully defaming him.

I am so sorry that this happened to sweet Lucy. All I can say about animal control is if the dog doesn't bite one of their people then good luck getting something done.

Ohhhh poor, poor, Lucy, I bet she doesn't know what hit her. I hope the meds she is on are helping her pain. Why don't you try to find an interpreter and set up a meeting with animal control? If this statement can help your case you can add it to the payback?

Poor, poor Lucy I hope she heals up well and feels better soon.

OMG poor Lucy! Grrr flexi leash on a big strong dog...hope everything turns out on your favor.

Sorry for your dog injury. Whenever there is an attack or even fear of attack, call 911, PD can call animal control after. Most Officers would have a different read on this then a "Dog Catcher". We have loose dogs here all the time, or uncontrolled on and off leash, aggressive with dumb owners. I carry a collapsible baton and sometimes a 5' hickory stick to protect my mutt.

Poor Lucy. At her age it must have been really stressful for her body, so I'm glad that she didn't had any complications going through treatment.

Thanks, everybody. I did call the police, not 911, and they referred me to animal control.

I honestly don't know how to protect my dogs. I've stopped walking three of them at a time. They are perfectly behaved on a leash, but I don't have the ability to protect all three of them if we're under attack.

I've carried pepper spray, but there's no guarantee that's going to work, and there's no guarantee the wind is going to be favorable.

I don't want to beat another dog, but I do want to keep it away from mine. I'm thinking now of carrying a long stick, maybe 6 feet, to keep the dog away from mine.

I'm so disappointed with animal control.

I'm so sorry. It's bad enough dealing with what happened but then to deal with a liar just really sucks. I will keep Lucy, you and your case in my prayers.

That's what bothers me perhaps the most. These are her twilight years, maybe months, and she has to live them in even more pain. I will say she's been amazingly resilient and has survived two surgeries.

So sorry this happened to Lucy. Do you think your vet could get involved and talk to the animal control offier . The vet could probably be able to verify the attack came from behind. And I would definitely take him to small claims court.

I hate that this happened to you. I know you love spending time with all three dogs on your walks.

Poor Lucy. I hope she recovers quickly and is not in pain. She has multiple sutures and a retention suture there. Did the vet say anything about muscle damage?

This makes me so mad!!! By any chance do you have pictures of the "scene of the crime"? Maybe animal control needs to get a better image in their head of what or how it happened. That guy is an idiot. Lucy is a senior dog! She just wants to live her golden years in peace with the rabble rousers she has for siblings. ;)

I'm sorry this happened to your sweet girl.:( It makes me furious. He should have to pay every Penny of Lucy's vet bills and then some. Working in a vet clinic, I see so many of these retractable leashes and I cringe every time I see one. They are completely worthless and dangerous to the dog, its owner and the poor people and dogs that happen to be standing in the way of them. On another message board I'm on someone posted about a relative that had had her finger severed by one. They need to be banned and this idiot needs to be held accountable for his vicious dog and what happened to Lucy.

They didn't mention muscle damage, but I didn't inquire either. She's so old and this is so traumatic, I don't expect her to recover fully before she passes.

The wound actually looks pretty darn good now that the stitches are out. There's one bare spot that didn't close, possibly due to licking. Doctors weren't concerned and thought it would heal on its own.

She's a little slower and has a limp, but I'm amazed at her resilience. She actually runs when she wants.

Here's a composite I did of some of the different stages that shows how she's healed.

I agree 100 percent. You have to have control of your dog. It's as simple as that. Retractables don't give you that control.

I actually tried them out when Eddie was young and thought they'd be good for practicing recalls. I only used them when were isolated. But even then, I was always fidgeting with the lock mechanism. It either worked when I didn't want to or didn't work. I ended up using long leashes -- 20 or 30 feet -- when we had the privacy to allow them that freedom. They were much more reliable and safer.

Im sorry. I really dont like pit bulls they are linked to too many attacks and are too unpredictable

Well this makes me sick. Once again it seems the victim dog and owner get no support from animal control. I'm so sick of hearing how they do nothing. Uuuuuuuggggggghhhhh. :mad: On top of the vet bills poor Lucy will forever have this incident in her mind and injuries to live with. I doubt they will do anything and Mike I hope you sue his butt off.

We have a pit that shows up around here occasionally. Scares the crap out of me. I have pepper spray but I also have a stun gun. Can you carry one of those? I think it's sad that owners are so irresponsible that we have to resort to these measures.

I pray sweet Lucy continues to heal and I pray that justice will be served.

I am so sorry for sweet Lucy. That must've been so traumatic I'm glad she's healing well. It's very sad to hear about animal control's lack of action.

Mike, you will win in court; but I so sympathize with you because no matter what it will never make things better. You have had to watch Lucy suffer because of this irresponsible jerk. Walking a bully breed dog on a retractable lead is just courting disaster. I feel sorry for his dog....this is not the fault of that dog. It is HIM.

I will say a prayer for you to find some peace in this....just so terribly frustrating.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm upset because if animal control doesn't classify this dog, you'd think it would make my court case more difficult. And I honestly feel animal control is looking for the easy way out so they don't have to do a difficult job.

Honestly, I don't think it will matter. I think the case is fairly obvious. If she attacked that dog, her face would have been injured. Case closed in my mind. I could be wrong, but I can tell you I would go to court anyway ... I just would not let that jerk off the hook.

Animal control is classifying it based on what they do with the dog now that it attacked another. I don't think that classification is going to hold much weight in court.

Clearly animal control is going to be hearing about this dog again...that guy is going to let his dog fight again...I think that is a given.

Poor Lucy, she's such a tough girl. I'm glad the other two are ok.

That owner is an idiot and if anything I think his statement should work against him. He must know his dog is dog agressive, why else would he have yelled? And why was he walking it on such a long leash while he was on a skateboard? He really had NO control of it.

If animal control doesn't do something very soon I'd threaten to call a news station.
I hope something is done about the dog and you at least get the money to cover Lucy's vet bills.

Something needs to be done about pit bulls in general, I'm just not sure what can be done.

About this time last year Buster was attacked by a dog that wasn't on a leash. When I took him to vet the next day, he asked if I had the shot records of the attacking dog, I did not. He was ready to call Animal Control if the shot records weren't produced ASAP. I'm surprised Animal Control didn't pick up the dog and put it in quarentine for a period of time - here it's ten days. Sounds like Animal Control isn't doing their job...to say the least.

Hope Lucy is feeling better...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

So sorry you and Lucy had to go through this. I can only imagine the frustration you must be feeling at the lack of action from Animal Control! I hope you are able to get some justice for Lucy!

Prayers to you!

This is how I feel. Pepper spray is a gamble. Weapons, I just don't want to have to go there. This is why I complain so much about irresponsible people who do not control their dogs.

I am so sorry that the authorities are dropping the ball on this. It's a big disservice to poor Lucy and to the safety of your community.

I'm so sorry to read about Lucy and her attack, surgery, her pain, your anguish and all your problems with that jerk and his dog. I pray other innocents are kept safe from those two. Walking dogs is a dangerous proposition with big, powerful dogs out and about. You are literally on your own when you walk your dog - just you and your dogs and whatever is running the streets. Having learned the hard way, I now never walk a dog without a deterrent and in a case like yours, I'd have protection from that dog as well. Next time he could kill one of your Yorkies before your eyes.

My Jilly at 3 lbs. was attacked by an off-leash 65 lb. Dalmatian and she was the one who lunged forward barking a warning when the big dog was coming toward us and rather than barking back, stopping or veering away or approaching normally, he attacked her viciously, grabbing her up in his jaws and repeatedly biting and shaking her, growling and gnashing. Repeated beatings with a walking stick finally caused him to let her go and back off but he didn't leave our immediate area but stayed and threatened us. I thought Jilly was dying - she was making the worst choking noises and I didn't know what he'd done to her with his jaws. She went into a seizure almost immediately, her head bent backward touching her back and she was was foaming at the mouth, seemed to be having trouble breathing and I was certain she was dying.

We were 3 blocks from home and the dog followed us a block as I ran home with her, stopping to threaten him with the stick when he got too close, and she had surgery that evening to repair her wounds, rehabbed and did fine after that, thank God. She was a trooper and then some and had no lingering psychological big dog fears.

While she was in surgery, I called 911 and reported the attack to AC and wanted to be sure the dog was reported as dangerous in that he didn't just bite once, he attacked and sustained the attack, holding her a prolonged period of time in his jaws until repeatedly beaten with a stick and finally let go but kept lunging at us and no doubt would have re-attacked if I hadn't had a walking stick, followed us threateningly for a block despite my brandishing that stick at him and I didn't know if he'd had his rabies shots. I told them I was scared for the other dogs and kids in the neighborhood because this dog was outside off leash when he attacked, wasn't easily fought off and that those little ones who were out and about could be in danger because if one of the dogs barked at that dog, it may attack again and a dog that edgy and vicious was a potential danger to pets and kids alike.

AC called to say the dog's rabies vax was current and told me they gave the owner the choice of keeping him under 24/10 observation at an approved city vet's office or at the city pound or sending his brain to Austin, Tx. for testing, ticketed him for having him outside off leash and I think for having a dangerous dog and, after 10 days of vet observation, he was not ill with rabies symptoms so I felt better about rabies as dog vax's aren't 100% able to prevent it. Jilly's was current too, thank goodness but I honestly feared that dog might have early rabies the way he just snapped when another dog merely barked a warning at him.

After that, I began carrying my one button, auto-open big black umbrella as a deterrent and no dog has ever attacked again. Most are intimidated and go the other way fast when that big umbrella whooshes open before their eyes.

I pray your Lucy does well in her rehab and you win in court and can successfully explain to AC and your city counsel one shouldn't have to live in fear to walk the streets with toy dogs due to the presence of this man's dog in the area. Maybe they will peg this dog as a dangerous or vicious dog to be kept only on its premises in 10 foot high fencing and never taken outside them on anything but a strong collar or harness and limited length, non-retractable leash.

what a traumatic experience for poor Lucy, a senior dog. The attack extremely severe by looks of the photos. So sorry this happened to her and thank god the two lil ones were not involved, I don't even want to think what would have been their out come. I would pursue the small claims court for the vet bill, but that cannot take away the pain this poor older lil girl suffered with surgery and the aftermath. This moron must be held accountable for his dogs action in not controlling his pit. Keeping Lucy in my prayers for a speedy and pain free recovery.

Oh my goodness, poor Lucy. Get well sweet girl, I am glad your Dad was there to help you.

I do NOT like retractable leashes, you have no control over the dog period. I have seen so many times where people us them and instead of them walking the dog the dog is walking them.

Get well soon Lucy, I will think good thoughts for you.

Awww, I'm so sorry sweet Lucy experienced such a nightmare! Poor baby's injury looks so painful! I pray Lucy continues to recover and that Animal Control will follow through against the irresponsible owner!