That was all before a loose pit bull mauled her in the city this month, broke her hip and leg and gnawed a baseball-sized chunk from her arm.
“She’s gone from a very productive, active woman to someone who depends on people to hold her up and brush her teeth and help her go to the bathroom,” her daughter-in-law, Tracey Katz, said. “It’s sad and disheartening.
What’s possibly even more sad is there were plenty of warning signs leading up to the attack on June 10.
Before it was euthanized last week, the dog had been a menace in the uptown neighborhood for years, residents said.
David and Brenda Garman remember it getting out of its yard in the 3300 block of North Fourth Street about a year ago and attacking their pit bull, which they were walking down Logan Street alley. They never reported the attack.
“The owner came out and said they’re just playing,” Brenda Garman said. “I said, ‘No, they aren’t. There’s blood all over.’”
 |
| "The [newspaper] mentioned a dog bite, but it more than that. It was down to the bone." - Richard Moore, neighbor |
The pit bull’s owner, Aaron Taylor, 30, was charged after the June 10 attack with harboring a dangerous dog, failure to restrain a dog and failure to have the dog vaccinated for rabies. Taylor declined comment through his mother, June Taylor, with whom he lives. He had one prior citation for letting his dog run loose, city police Lt. Robert Fegan said.
It was the fourth publicized pit bull attack in the city since March, when city police shot and killed two pit bulls that had threatened children and killed a cat.
A 12-year-old boy was riding his bicycle home May 29 after playing basketball at the Radnor Street playground when a brindle pit bull chased him and latched its jaw around his leg. He was able to get away by kicking and punching the dog, but not without a trip to the emergency room and a series of painful rabies shots.
Three days later, two pit bulls scaled a fence on the city’s south side and mauled a wire-haired Dachshund, Hollywood, who was in the backyard while its owner grocery shopped with her son. An animal control officer was able to wrangle one of the pit bulls, but the other remains loose.
 |
| In the doorway of her Harrisburg home, Betsy Davenny holds toys belonging to her wire-haired dachshund, Hollywood |
Police Chief Pierre Ritter enraged area animal advocates by saying this month the city doesn’t have a pit bull problem. The Patriot-News has left numerous messages on Ritter’s cell phone at his office but he hasn’t responded.
But Mayor Linda Thompson said the onus falls on dog owners to train their dog properly, register it and make sure it doesn’t get loose. “Obviously there’s something violent about a pit when it’s not properly trained, and those are the animals I’m concerned about,” Thompson said. “There are pit bulls I know whose owners take care of them and there’s no violent streak in them.”
Two hundred stray pit bulls in Harrisburg ended up at the Humane Society of Harrisburg area shelter last year, up 28 percent from 2007. There were nearly 20 times more stray pits that went to the shelter from the city last year compared with Lower Paxton Twp., which has a similar population.
Community involvement is key to stopping the violent attacks, Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico Jr. said. Let authorities know when there’s a dangerous dog in your neighborhood, he said.
Marsico said he’s heard rumors of dogs fighting each other in the streets in Harrisburg, but no evidence of an organized dog fighting ring, as in the kind that landed Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick in prison.
“These dogs are not being bred to be family companions,” said Amy Kaunas, executive director of the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area. “It’s really a shame and unfortunately people like this 80-year-old woman are going to be victims.”
 |
| Neighbors say the pit bulls have a history of aggressive behavior, describing how they were almost attacked. |
Richard Moore knew immediately what happened when he heard screams from his North Third Street home last week.
His first thought: The dog got someone.
He worried it was his wife, Connie, who was out riding her bike.
But when he walked out of his house, he recognized his neighbor, Esther Katz, screaming on the pavement and bleeding profusely. She was attacked as she was walking home from getting her hair done.
Esther Katz has spent a week in the hospital recovering from her injuries. She had a five-hour surgery and might need to get skin graphs.
Since it happened, the Katz family said the owner hasn’t apologized to them or asked if he can help in any way.
“People like that should not have dogs,” Brenda Garman said.
(Patriot News - June 18, 2011)
Read More:
