NEBRASKA -- When Shelly Ballard read The Independent’s Sunday story about a pit bull attacking a Doniphan woman along Buffalo Road, she shuddered.
"It was eerily similar," Ballard said.
Ballard, a Doniphan distance runner who jogs gravel roads about five times a week, said she had been running north along Buffalo Road on Oct. 23 when a pack of dogs ran out on the road. There were three pit bulls, a brindle, a white and a puppy; two Labrador retrievers; and two small dachshunds.
The brindle pit bull ran behind her, biting her in her right buttock, and then charged in front of her.
"He kept lunging at me," Ballard said. "I had on loose long sleeves, and he kept lunging at me and tore my sleeves."
The small dogs circled and jumped at her feet.
"It made it difficult to defend myself," Ballard said.
She was worried about getting knocked down and how the rest of the dogs might respond.
"It was obvious the brindle [pit bull] was the lead dog of the pack," she said.
Ballard had stopped running when the dogs ran out from the first house on the east side of the road just south of Platte River Drive. Feeling the sting of what she initially thought was a scratch, she tried to back away from the brindle, but it kept lunging and trying to get around to her backside, she said.
"No. Easy," she told the dog several times.
After more than 15 minutes, she managed to back 100 to 200 yards along Buffalo Road, and the dog lost interest. Ballard headed for home in the Amick Acres subdivision and called the doctor and the sheriff when she got home.
The doctor advised her to get a tetanus shot and antibiotics the next day to treat the two puncture wounds and bruising. The sheriff’s deputy advised her to file a report with the Central Nebraska Humane Society.
Ballard did both.
She was surprised to read in the Nov. 27 Independent that another Doniphan jogger, Jeanine Lackey, had been charged on Nov. 6 by a pack of dogs along Buffalo Road just south of Platte River Drive. A brown pit bull attacked Lackey, leaving her with four puncture wounds and a bruise 8 to 10 inches long on her upper left thigh.
"There’s no doubt in my mind this is the same dog," Ballard said.
"I feel bad," she said of seeing Lackey’s injury. "If something had happened differently with my case, she wouldn’t have to go through this, but I filed a report."
Humane Society Director Laurie Dethloff said the society didn’t initially connect the two cases because Ballard had reported being bitten on Oct. 23 by a dog along Buffalo Road, but she didn’t provide an exact address.
Because Ballard provided directions to the home, rather than the physical address, the bite was "nonconfirmed," Dethloff said. An animal control officer was sent to the scene the day after the bite — the day it was reported — but the officer found no one at home and no dog there.
Ballard’s handwritten, detailed report of the bite was also subsequently lost, Dethloff said this week.
However, the society acknowledges Ballard’s bite did occur as confirmed by photos taken of her injury. The photos were included in a computerized report that was updated by the Humane Society this week and documented as being linked to Lackey’s case.
Although animal control officers were not able to contact the pit bull’s owner immediately after Ballard’s bite, Dethloff said, they did inform the owner after Lackey’s bite that the dog was suspected in two separate cases.
Because of those two cases and because of the severity of Lackey’s bite, which resulted in medical attention at the emergency room, the pit bull owned by Melinda Brittain was deemed dangerous.
Brittain didn’t contest the ruling and was ordered by the Humane Society to post her home at 11535 S. Buffalo Road with a dangerous-dog sign. She was also ordered to build an escape-proof kennel for Bud, the pit bull. That kennel must have a concrete bottom and wire top. If Bud is not in the kennel, it must be in the house or muzzled and on a leash, Dethloff said.
Dethloff said this week that Brittain has not posted the property but has insisted to Humane Society officials that Bud is staying indoors.
"There’s nothing we can do," Dethloff said.
Brittain lives outside of any municipal jurisdiction. Dethloff said Grand Island has an Animal Advisory Board that oversees cases of dangerous dogs. In fact, a Grand Island pit bull that bit two people was deemed as dangerous this week when owner Chad Faubion failed to show up for an appeal hearing.
But such codes cannot be enforced outside of "subdivisions," which are defined as three or more houses, Dethloff said.
In the absence of county regulations, state statutes apply out in the country, she said.
Those statutes and Grand Island city code basically allow a dog three bites before being taken by the Humane Society. After the first bite, the dog can be declared "potentially dangerous." The second bite can result in a "dangerous" declaration, and the third bite results in confiscation of the dog and a hearing for euthanization.
"The next time he bites, we can take him," Dethloff said of Bud.
The only way to bypass the "three strikes" policy is if a bite is "God-awful," Dethloff said. She defined "God-awful" as requiring 25 stitches or more.
Ideally, Dethloff said, she’d like to see dog owners who understand that proper care, including fencing, is needed to protect their animals and the public.
Brittain said she thinks her dog is getting unfair publicity. He is neutered and 1 year old, contrary to the unneutered, 2-year-old information provided by Humane Society reports referred to in the Nov. 27 story in The Independent, she said.
"I feel humiliated," Brittain said. "And I don’t feel safe now."
When asked about the kennel for Bud, Brittain said there is a kennel, but she has a lot of land and Bud is staying in the house.
Dethloff said it’s time for a rewrite of local animal ordinances. Those can be made stiffer than state regulations, she said.
"It’s frustrating," Dethloff said of trying to enforce what’s in place now. "It’s frustrating to the public and frustrating to us."
(The Independent - November 30, 2011)
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