Dog with previous record bites man; awaits fate

This photo is for illustrative purposes only and not an image of the dog in this story. Stock image | St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A pit bull well known to local animal control officers bit a man Friday while it was running loose in the vicinity of 370 W. 300 South in St. George.

Stock image | St. George News
This photo is for illustrative purposes and is not an image of the dog in this story. | Stock image, St. George News

“Animal Services has had previous incidents with this dog,” St. George Police Sgt. Ivor Fuller said, “and so the dog was taken to the animal shelter for quarantine.”

The animal has had at least two and possibly three previous incidents that animal services has responded to, Fuller said.

“At this point in time it will remain quarantined at the animal shelter until a disposition can be decided,” he said.

The fate of the animal will be determined at a later date by the City of St. George.

“If the animal is deemed vicious, then it would be euthanized and that’s a decision that has to be made between the city and the owner of the dog,” Fuller said.

After the disposition findings are given, the owner of the dog has 10 days to dispute the ruling. The man who was bitten sustained only minor injuries in the attack.

The City of St. George has clear standards for aggressive animals who bite, Fuller said.

“Obviously we look at all the circumstances with the animal, but under St. George city ordinance it says that after three reported bites that a dog can be deemed vicious,” he said.

Law enforcement looks at other factors when considering the circumstances involving a bite including whether the dog was provoked or if the bite occurred by accident when the owner was playing with the dog.

“We’d want to look at that and make sure we’re being reasonable,” Fuller said.

If an animal is found to be vicious, then the animal would have to be humanely euthanized.

“The animal would have to be destroyed because of the threat it poses to public health and safety.”

The City of St. George has no breed-specific ordinances that would target a pit bull.

“Our ordinances and our laws are based off simply the behavior of the owner and the animal,” he said.

People are often unaware of the laws regarding dogs, he said.

“Let’s say your dog is out in the front yard and it’s playing, and it runs out onto the sidewalk to greet someone else,” Fuller said, “whether or not a bite occurs, that dog becomes ‘at large’ if it is not under your direct control. So it has to be on your property, leashed or under your direct control.”

Law enforcement and animal control personnel deal with dog bites far too often, Fuller said.

“We deal with them weekly,” he said.

Often animal services officers — who are civilians — will handle dog bites on their own, he said, but in this particular case, due to the known nature of the dog, officers from St. George Police Department assisted in its capture.

“Just to make sure the outcome was a positive one,” Fuller said.

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Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

 

 

 

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29 Comments

  • RealMcCoy August 12, 2016 at 6:10 pm

    Just put it down! ( I’m talking about the dog’s owner.)
    Who lets a confirmed biter out in public anyways?
    He’s lucky he didn’t bite someone with 9mm teeth…

  • Bob August 12, 2016 at 6:22 pm

    does the owner have neck tattoos?

    • redrock4 August 15, 2016 at 1:23 pm

      I’m not sure if you were joking or serious – but yes, the owner does have neck tattoos. And yes, the neighbors are anxiously waiting for the irresponsible landlord to evict him. Just hope he doesn’t move to your neighborhood.

      • RealMcCoy August 15, 2016 at 1:50 pm

        Ahahahaha… he was joking about the stereotypical pitbull owner… and it’s true!

    • Bob August 15, 2016 at 3:37 pm

      wasn’t joking even a little. i know the type

  • Bob August 12, 2016 at 6:23 pm

    its always tattooed-up low lifes that own these “pit bull” monsters

    • .... August 13, 2016 at 10:24 am

      You got that right. some Real Low Life. !!! LMAO

  • Common Sense August 12, 2016 at 7:34 pm

    There is another one that runs loose in Washington… It killed a cat in front of all the neighbor kids and was constantly out roaming the cul-de-sac pooping and peeing wherever and the owners didn’t care or try to control it. I used to fear my kids walking home from school because I would be at work and they would have to walk by this dogs house and it would chase my children up a fence growling and threatening. The only way to escape this kind of terrorism was to move.

    • Kristi August 13, 2016 at 10:45 am

      I live in Washington too right down the sreet from an Elementary school. We have a pit bull that runs around our neighborhood too. Its bad because they live right next to an elementary school and he roams up there when the kids are going to school and getting out of school. Its really hard too cuz they don’t have a fence around the yard, and the owner had told me once that his dog is very nice and loves kids so he’s not worried about it. It only takes one time for that dog to become aggressive if a kids decides to kick it. And this goes for any kind of dog for that matter

    • RealMcCoy August 13, 2016 at 11:07 am

      No, the only way to deal with that kind of terrorism is a few glass filled meatballs tossed to the dog, then letting nature take its course.
      In my neighborhood, that dog would have been dead after the cat-mauling.
      #SorryNotSorry

  • Proud Rebel August 12, 2016 at 8:34 pm

    Seems to me like it is the owner that needs to be confined, and then put down. If you are unable to care for an animal, then DON’T HAVE AN ANIMAL! Now is that really such a hard concept to understand?

  • .... August 13, 2016 at 5:08 am

    That dog was okay until Real Life bit it

    • Real Life August 13, 2016 at 8:37 am

      Nobody cares what you think. Get off the dope.

      • .... August 13, 2016 at 10:22 am

        Seriously. nobody cares what you think. get back on your meds

        • Real Life August 13, 2016 at 11:43 am

          You are repeating yourself. Must be the dope.

          • .... August 15, 2016 at 9:35 am

            The only dope here is you !

          • .... August 16, 2016 at 6:34 am

            May The good lord watch over you and bless you

  • Brian August 13, 2016 at 1:15 pm

    It’s no surprise at all that this was a pit bull.

    In one hospital study pit bull attacks were 4 times more severe, much more costly, and essentially infinitely more fatal (10.3% fatality vs. 0% among all other breeds): http://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/Abstract/2011/04000/Mortality,_Mauling,_and_Maiming_by_Vicious_Dogs.23.aspx

    In another study covering 30 years of data, pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes are responsible for 74% of all attacks, 68% of the attacks upon children, 82% of the attacks upon adults, 65% of the deaths, and 68% of the maimings:
    http://dogbitelaw.com/images/pdf/Dog_Attacks_1982-2006_Clifton.pdf

    And it isn’t just other peoples dogs, family pit bulls (you know, the ones that are so friendly and a member of the family and would never hurt anybody) kill family members a lot.
    http://www.theledger.com/article/20100414/NEWS/4145045
    http://wgno.com/2014/03/26/5-year-old-girl-killed-in-pit-bull-attack/#axzz3Arh4Azar
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqp9uFGKK-M
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States

    • sagemoon August 15, 2016 at 12:27 pm

      Keep in mind these studies rely on REPORTED data. Not many people report a bite by a little dog. I don’t trust these stats.

  • Kathryn August 13, 2016 at 8:54 pm

    The dogs fate should be obvious-it needs to be euthanized. Dogs that harm humans have NO place in or near human society. One thing the authorities cannot do is continue to return known vicious dog back to irresponsible, delusional owners until someone is DEAD.

  • sagemoon August 15, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    I resent that the picture at the top of the article features a rottweiler. This case involves a pit bull. Please don’t give rottweilers bad names because someone looks at the headline and doesn’t read the article.

  • redrock4 August 15, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    This same dog (along with another pit bull that lives at the residence) attacked a 71 year old woman on 8/7/16. This information is well delineated in a police report from SGPD. She was knocked on the ground as she was walking her small dog on the sidewalk. As she tried to keep the dogs from attacking her little dog, she was bitten. The fall caused her to sustain multiple contusions and a broken hand. When I saw her two days later she still was bleeding from a cut on her upper leg. She was then sent to the DRMC ER where they diagnosed the broken hand.
    The most disturbing thing about the attack was the owner’s reaction. He let the dogs out of the house without leashes and they immediately went after the elderly woman, her friend and the little dog. According to her report, he did nothing to stop the event outside of calling the dogs back into the home. He left her there on the sidewalk, bleeding, terrified and with a broken hand. Her friend called the police. He did not at any time offer assistance.
    While pit bulls certainly have a reputation, the dog owner is at fault along with the owner of the home who has chosen to rent to an irresponsible and antisocial person. I look forward to hearing about some litigation regarding the incidents. The dogs should be removed permanently and placed at a sanctuary like Best Friend’s where they can be rehabilitated if possible.

    • RealMcCoy August 15, 2016 at 1:49 pm

      What a shame that no neighbors intervened to help her.
      In my neighborhood, there would have been a swift dog-execution in the street as an ambulance was called, and that dogs owner would be given the ‘you have until sunrise to be gone’ speech.
      #OldWomenLivesMatter
      #MyKidsLivesMatter
      #WhiteTrashDogsDontMatter

    • Bob August 15, 2016 at 3:35 pm

      if your story is true it is a failure of police to do their job. what you say happened could fall under numerous criminal offenses, and the animal could have been seized then.

      • redrock4 August 16, 2016 at 8:10 am

        The police and animal control are involved but I’m unsure what they are doing at the moment. I’m hoping that they will respond appropriately. The woman has had good medical follow up no thanks to the dog owner. She is still terrified to walk her dog (even in safer places like Tabernacle or Main Street). In regard to the neighbors, I think that they just did not see the attack or most of them would have helped the woman. Also, as mentioned in my previous post, the event is well documented in the police report.

  • Ron August 16, 2016 at 11:14 am

    27 years ago, while residing in another state, I took to shooting aggressive pit bulls for the sheer pleasure of seeing them die. I started doing this after seeing an aggressive male pit bull maul and kill a 5 year old child. I tried to kill that pit bull with a pocket knife, to no avail, but I had to run to my home to retrieve my firearm. By the time I returned with my firearm, the owner had taken control of the pit bull. Believe me, I wanted to shoot the owner as well as the dog. The paramedics arrived and took the little girl to the ER, where she died of her injuries as a result a few hours later.
    As the owner was a known gang member with a long criminal record, he was charged with the death of the little girl. Although he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, NOT murder, he was sentenced to time in prison.
    My only regret now, is, I wish I were 27 years younger.

    • RealMcCoy August 16, 2016 at 4:23 pm

      America needs more men of action like you!
      I feel the best pit bull is the one someone just put down.
      #ChildrensLivesMatter
      #IDontCareWhatPitLoversThink
      #WhyDontTheyHaveToRegisterPitsLikeGuns

    • Bob August 17, 2016 at 1:35 am

      why didn’t the knife work? unless it was completely rabid, one good deep stab probly would’ve sent it packing. A club or iron bar also works well on those monsters. A pitbull is an animal that shouldn’t even exist. They’re vermin bread by vermin.

  • redrock4 August 17, 2016 at 9:08 am

    The exact home address of the alleged gang member that has the two pit bulls is 334 West 300 South. Trust me, you would move if he was your neighbor. I’m looking forward to him being locked up again. I’ll give him a couple of months before he is in prison for something.

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