Posted on 05/19/2007 4:05:05 AM PDT by csvset
A 59-year-old woman was attacked by a friend's pit bull and hospitalized with "horrific" arm injuries, Petaluma authorities said Friday.
This was the second time the dog had bitten Isabel Pollium, said Nancee Tavares, Petaluma's animal services manager.
Pollium was in fair, stable condition at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital on Friday. The apparently unprovoked attack took place about 11 p.m. Thursday, Tavares said.
In 2005, the 3-year-old purebred, named Dozer, bit Pollium's leg but she declined to press charges, Tavares said. It also bit another dog that year.
The attack on the dog prompted a dangerous dog abatement order to be issued on Dozer, Tavares said.
The order prohibited the dog's being walked without a leash and muzzle and ordered him confined at all other times to his property, a west Petaluma bungalow where two signs warn visitors to beware the pit bull on the premises.
Dozer, who weighs about 90 pounds, is "scary," Tavares said. "We want to euthanize him immediately, because he's too dangerous for the staff, even with security measures."
But a tearful Darlene Haltom, whose adult daughter, Natasha, owns Dozer, described him as a "family dog" and said even Pollium "doesn't want him put to sleep."
Darlene Haltrom said: "He's like my daughter's child. A child misbehaves, you don't put him to sleep, you try to help him, and that's what we wanted to do."
When Pollium stayed at her home the night before, Haltom said, Dozer had slept with her friend on the couch.
Reached by phone at the hospital, Pollium declined an interview request.
Pollium and Haltom were alone in the house when the attack occurred. Haltom said she was in another room and Pollium was on her cell phone in the living room when things went wrong.
The phone rang and Pollium answered, then began yelling for Haltom and rushing over to give her the phone, she said.
"He just stopped her in her tracks," Haltom said, adding that Pollium knew that screaming and yelling and running are "triggers" that upset Dozer.
Haltom said she interceded and Pollium was able to flee and hide in the bathroom.
Haltom reassured her that the bathroom door was closed, she said. But Pollium had not latched it, and when Dozer was let loose he pushed the door open, Haltom said.
Pollium said, "Hi, Dozer," Haltom said, "but he smelled the blood on the floor and he went for her arm again."
Haltom cried throughout a half-hour interview. She occasionally soaked a finger in hydrogen peroxide to treat a scratch left from when she tried to help Pollium.
Speaking about her friend, Haltom said: "In a way it's her fault, and in a way it's not. She knows his triggers - she shouldn't have done that. But a dog shouldn't attack someone. How do you weight that out?"
A magazine, "Training Secrets for Bully Breeds," was on her coffee table; it was among a stack of material Haltom said her family had procured to help train Dozer.
"He's such a good dog, and we do everything in our powers," she said.
Dozer is being held at the Petaluma animal shelter. The law requires a 10-day quarantine to check for rabies before dogs are euthanized, Tavares said, but the procedure can be done immediately if the animal's brain is then sent for testing.
The attack came about three weeks after a 7-year-old Petaluma boy, Roberto Kampfner Jr., was mauled by a neighbor's two Rottweilers. Kampfner, who suffered 20 deep wounds to his legs, returned to school Friday but remains traumatized, his father said.
"He's going to have a lot of mental issues, he doesn't want to be outside, and sometimes he doesn't even want to go into our back yard, which is completely fenced in," Roberto Kampfner said. "He hasn't been able to walk down the street or anything; he's just too scared."
The District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case to see whether to press charges against the Rottweilers' owner.
Tavares said an investigation by Petaluma animal control is under way in the attack on Pollium.
You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.
Should’ve been “the charm” the first time. :(
Hoss
But they’re harmless dogs, it’s all about how they’re trained, it’s the owner’s fault, and why was that woman near the dog, probably got the poor thing excited, poodles kill more people than pit bulls, blah blah blah...
Of course it was the victims fault since she should have known the triggers that set this physco dog off!/SAR What asshats!
Call that dog whisperer guy.
Yes - this dog will kill.
A good example of how in these cases, there is always a problem with the owner, as well as the dog. There is always some level of denial.
Living with one of these beasts is like living with an open container of gasoline in the corner of the room. Sooner or later its gonna burn your house down probably.
Euthanize the dog and owner. The dog for being viscious and the owner for being stupid.
Once bitten, twice shy???
It IS largely the owners who allow these dogs to become so menacing.
It’s not the dogs fault!
exactly...I passed on a relationship with a really nice girl because her 3 pets were a pit and 2 rottweilers..I refused to visit her even though she said that all 3 were extremely gentle..all it takes is one time..
This sounds exactly like the gang -thug's mothers on TV interviews when their "good little boy" gets busted for murder in a drive-by or other gang violence...
Criminal enablers make me sick. This dog should have been put down the very first time it showed violent tendencies towards others.
It is irresponsible owners like this that get the breed banned from cities.
Dozer needs a dirt nap.
This was the second attack on the lady. And she spent the night at the apartment?
How about a little of the “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”.
Disclaimer: This post in now way is to be considered as support for Pit Bulls or other vicious dogs. But come on folks, the lady is trolling for a Darwin Award.
Memo to Isabel: Break a small glass and grind it until fine. Mix with 1 lb of hamburger. Toss glob over fence to pit bull. Stubbornly deny any knowledge of why crazy dog died.
Carolyn
Not it's FAULT as in it has no sense of right or wrong, but it is the dog that is the PROBLEM.
I never thought of that. Excellent point.
And like those parents, the owners don't want the DOG/THUG blamed, but of course THEY don't wanna be blamed for enabling the thing, either.
Dozer, who weighs about 90 pounds, is “scary,”
I personally have no use for this breed and the world would not be worse for all of them disappearing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.