Nov. 6 was no different -- or so she thought.
 |
| Recovering from the pit bull attack |
She padded off into the gravel along Buffalo Road. The scenery there is nice -- open cornfields, blue sky -- and there's less traffic than the paved roads leading to the Amick Acres subdivision.
As she jogged, a yellow Lab at the first farmhouse on the right got up to bark her usual hello and give Lackey a friendly tail wave. The sun felt good on Lackey's skin as she passed the country home of a county sheriff's deputy.
Then she slowed. The next house -- on the east side of Buffalo Road -- always had a group of dogs.
They always ran out onto the road and barked at Lackey, so she always walked by there, not wanting to stir them up. She hadn't seen the dogs out the past two weeks, but she slowed anyway to a brisk walk.
She heard the dogs bark, so she moved to the west side of the road with her little black mutt of a dog leashed close by her side.
The pack darted out. There were two pit bulls, a pit bull puppy, a Chihuahua, a basset hound and a blue heeler mix that stayed back off the road. A big black dog that she was used to seeing wasn't there this time.
Lackey was nervous but figured it would be the routine rush out to the road, some barking, some sniffing and then retreating. She kept focused on the road and gathered her own dog's leash a little tighter.
That's when it happened.
The large brown pit bull didn't back away this time. He came right at Lackey.
He turned only enough to get behind her and lunged -- sinking his teeth into Lackey's upper left thigh.
Now she was scared. She screamed.
"No, no, no. Go home," Lackey said as she pointed her finger at the dog.
It let go, seemingly unable to get a good grip on her slick running pants. She gathered up her own dog and walked backward as she continued to yell at the dog.
"I thought it was going to come at me again," she said, wide-eyed.
She made her way to the deputy's house. He was home and called animal control.
Lead animal control officer Libbie Dethloff of the Central Nebraska Humane Society said, in this case, "there was nothing the victim could have done differently."
The dog owner, Melinda Brittain of 11535 S. Buffalo Road, told officers she had let 2-year-old unneutered male pit bull "Bud" out to relieve himself...
Another recent pit bull bite case in Grand Island has been appealed to Grand Island's Animal Advisory Board. The hearing will be at noon Monday. It's the second time that the 2-year-old white pit bull named Phantom has bitten someone in Grand Island.
The first bite happened on Sept. 7, when a utility worker was bitten while the dog was chained in the yard on a leash that reached into the alley and to the pole where the city employee was working. The second bite, on Nov. 15, happened when a passerby was attacked by the dog after it ran out of a house at 2403 W. North Front.
Bud and Phantom were both current on rabies shots, but Laurie Dethloff said other changes need to occur in animal regulations. She's working with the Animal Advisory Board to consider a new tethering law that would allow dogs in Grand Island to be chained or leashed for no more than 20 minutes. Being chained makes a dog aggressive, she said.
The proposal is expected to go before the Grand Island City Council in the spring.
Lackey took herself to the emergency room after being bitten. She was given a tetanus shot and multiple days of antibiotics. She had a recheck after two weeks, when bruising from the four-puncture bite was still about eight to 10 inches long. She missed a day of work, has trouble sitting in her car to drive and still can't sleep on her left side.
Bud was deemed dangerous, meaning that he must be muzzled when off his property. When he's at home, he must be inside the house or inside an outside kennel that is escape-proof with a concrete floor and a wire top. Brittain didn't contest the declaration.
Phantom has also been deemed dangerous, but owner Chad Faubion is appealing.
(The Independent - November 26, 2011)