MISSISSIPPI -- Austin Beaver, 10, is recuperating at home after receiving more than 100 stitches in his face following a reported attack by a neighborhood pit bull.
He can’t go back to school until a plastic surgeon releases him to resume normal activity, said his mother, Brandy Beaver.
“He has an incision underneath his eye, but he is very lucky he didn’t lose his eye or his ear,” she said.
“He has all his limbs and he’s alive.”
Austin, his brother Mason, 8, and friend Michael Horst, 9, have been summoned to appear in court Dec. 12 along with Daniel Catchings, whose dog allegedly attacked them after the dog ran out of Catchings’ home and the boys tried to help catch the dog.
The incident in Quail Creek subdivision was reported to the sheriff’s office on Thanksgiving day. Animal-control officers arrested Catchings, 41, on Monday on misdemeanors charges of violating a leash law and failing to have a current rabies vaccination for the dog.
He was released on a $500 bond.
Sheriff’s Maj. Tony Sauro said Catchings is blind and it was his understanding that others who live at Catchings’ home normally take the dog for a walk on a leash.
A good deed
Neighborhood kids know the male brindle-colored dog, so the boys thought nothing of trying to help catch the dog when it ran out of its house, Brandy Beaver said.
“They were just trying to do a good deed and the dog snapped,” she said.
She was getting ready to serve her family’s holiday meal when her youngest son came running in, screaming that they had been attacked by a dog. “I asked where his brother was and he couldn’t say anything,” she said. “He just pointed.”
Mason and Michael couldn’t get the dog off of Austin, she said, so they ran home to tell their mothers. “They did what they had to do, and they really have hero status in my eyes,” Beaver said.
A neighbor apparently pulled the dog off, she said.
The boys were taken to Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. Austin’s injuries were more serious. He was taken to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.
“He must have some kind of guardian angel looking after him,” his mother said.
Austin is in the 5th grade at D’Iberville Middle School.
Mason and Michael, who attend D’Iberville Elementary, had injuries on their faces and on their lips or shoulder.
Dogs quarantined
The dog, called “Digger” in court papers, and a second pit bull later removed from Catchings’ home have been quarantined at the Humane Society of South Mississippi.
Beaver, a single mother, took her sons to identify the dog Monday.
“Austin hasn’t had nightmares about it and he is making an amazing recovery,” she said.
Beaver said she hopes dog owners take notice that they should maintain control of their pets.
The upcoming appearance in Justice Court will include a hearing to determine if the dog should be declared a dangerous dog, said Herman Cox, Harrison County prosecuting attorney.
If deemed dangerous, the owner would be required to follow restrictions to include keeping it in an enclosed area and posting warning signs. The dog could be walked only by an adult provided the dog is muzzled and on a leash.
Once a dog is declared dangerous, its owner can be imprisoned for a year and fined $1,000 if the dog, without provocation, attacks and injures a person, Cox said. If a dangerous dog severely injures or kills a human or another animal, the dog could be ordered put to sleep.
(Sun Herald - Nov. 30, 2011)
