SOUTH CAROLINA -- An Anderson County Detention Center inmate is credited with aiding an employee at the county animal shelter last week who was being attacked by a dog.
Inmate Kelly Cooley, 49, “did render assistance” to the injured shelter employee, interim county administrator Rusty Burns said.
Cooley is serving a 30-day sentence at the detention center after being arrested on a pair of bench warrants, a jail spokesman said. Inmates are allowed to work at the county animal shelter if they are not considered to be violent or a flight risk.
The shelter employee, who county officials have not identified, was attacked by bull terrier while trying to put water in a dish for the animal.
The dog had been held at the county shelter since attacking an Anderson man in May. In that period, the same employee had cared for the dog without any problems.
But, Burns said, “the animal went vicious” on Wednesday for unknown reasons.
The employee that the dog attacked suffered injuries to his wrist and ankle and won’t return to work for at least a week while he recovers, Burns said.
A judge signed an order Friday giving county officials permission to euthanize the dog. The order described the dog as “ferocious and difficult for the shelter to handle.”
The dog’s owner, Anderson resident Ronnie Blair, “has been diagnosed with cancer and is in very poor health, and is consenting to the destruction of the dog,” according to the judge’s order.
It was unknown Saturday whether shelter officials had carried out the order to destroy the dog.
According to a sheriff’s report, the dog attacked Mark Randall Yates on May 11 at Blair’s home on Sunset Forest Drive.
Yates said Saturday that he was doing yard work for Blair when the dog named "Bo" [attacked, biting] him in the left side and left arm.
“I tried to get away from him, but I never had a chance,” said Yates, who was treated for his injuries in the emergency room at AnMed Health Medical Center in Anderson.
Yates, who said he still has numbness in his arm because of nerve damage that he suffered in the May attack, said he was happy to hear of the decision to destroy the dog.
“I wanted that dog put down,” he said.
Last week’s attack is the second incident that has cast attention on the county’s $3 million shelter since it opened in April.
Last month shelter director Jessica Cwynar broke down crying at a meeting while being questioned by the leader of an advisory committee about an outbreak of parvovirus that killed dozens of dogs at the facility.
Anderson County Council members responded by giving preliminary approval to a measure that would disband the shelter’s advisory panel, which is led by Carole Glenn. Glenn and her husband donated the land to the county where the new Anderson County P.A.W.S (Pets Are Worth Saving) shelter was built on U.S. 29 South.
Last week’s attack happened even though shelter procedures were being followed, Burns said.
But Burns also said shelter procedures are now being reviewed as a result of the attack, which he described as an unfortunate event.
(Independent Mail - Oct 22, 2011)
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