ILLINOIS -- Just another morning outside her North Side home with her dogs turned into a nightmare for Lake County Board member Diane Hewitt, leaving her on a mission to enact tougher penalties for owners of dogs that have a history of attacking other pets.
“Last Thursday between 8:30 and 9 o’clock, I took my three little dogs outside,” Hewitt said Tuesday. “I had them on a leash on my front lawn so they could do their business, and a loose dog came running down the street and charged at us.”
“Last Thursday between 8:30 and 9 o’clock, I took my three little dogs outside,” Hewitt said Tuesday. “I had them on a leash on my front lawn so they could do their business, and a loose dog came running down the street and charged at us.”
Before she knew it, Hewitt said, the dog had her 14-pound bischon Maltese, Cindy, in its jaws.
“It was a pit-bull type of dog, and it got her by the neck and shook her like a rag,” Hewitt said, adding that “I kicked and screamed a lot” trying to fight off the attacking dog before two neighbors ran over to help.
“My one neighbor came out with a broom or a mop — something with a long handle — and she grabbed my other two dogs,” Hewitt said. “Then another neighbor grabbed the broom and hit the dog with it until (the attack) stopped.”
“It was a pit-bull type of dog, and it got her by the neck and shook her like a rag,” Hewitt said, adding that “I kicked and screamed a lot” trying to fight off the attacking dog before two neighbors ran over to help.
“My one neighbor came out with a broom or a mop — something with a long handle — and she grabbed my other two dogs,” Hewitt said. “Then another neighbor grabbed the broom and hit the dog with it until (the attack) stopped.”
One neighbor tried to restrain the attacking dog by its collar, but Hewitt said it broke free and ran away. She and her neighbors then focused on getting Cindy to Beach Park Animal Hospital.
“I thought my dog was dead. When I got there, I don’t think they expected her to live,” said Hewitt, describing Cindy’s injuries as “horrible, absolutely horrible. It just mauled her. Her neck just looked like you took a razor and cut her.”
But Hewitt added that Cindy “is a real bruiser, and she’s home now” after a two-day stint in the hospital. Hewitt and her husband have to carry the 9-year-old dog outside when necessary, and are monitoring injuries that include possible damage to her kidneys and liver from the physical shaking involved in the attack.
“I thought my dog was dead. When I got there, I don’t think they expected her to live,” said Hewitt, describing Cindy’s injuries as “horrible, absolutely horrible. It just mauled her. Her neck just looked like you took a razor and cut her.”
But Hewitt added that Cindy “is a real bruiser, and she’s home now” after a two-day stint in the hospital. Hewitt and her husband have to carry the 9-year-old dog outside when necessary, and are monitoring injuries that include possible damage to her kidneys and liver from the physical shaking involved in the attack.
On Monday night, Hewitt went before the City Council to thank Waukegan animal control officers for locating the attacking dog and its owner. She also called on aldermen to consider stiffer penalties for owners of dogs with a history of attacks, and increased enforcement of laws already on the books.
Current Waukegan ordinances include provisions enacted in 2007 for “dangerous” dogs, defined in part as any dog that, according to animal-control records, “has aggressively bitten, attacked, endangered or inflicted severe injury on a human being without provocation,” or “has more than once severely injured or killed a domestic animal without provocation while off the owner’s property.”
Once a dog is documented as dangerous, owners must pay a $250 annual registration fee and secure liability insurance, among other requirements. In general, any dog in the city can be impounded and owners fined up to $500 for offenses that include allowing it to run at large.
While attempts to contact Waukegan police regarding any citations issued in Hewitt’s case were not successful on Tuesday, Hewitt said she’s been told that the dog involved will likely be euthanized. She still plans to lobby both municipal governments and her own County Board about greater scrutiny for owners of dogs with a checkered past.
“I have to feel like some good can come out of what happened,” she said. “What I’d like to see is every community in the county look at their ordinances and tweak them a little bit, (and) protect their neighborhoods by not allowing a dangerous dog to come back again.”
For now, less than a week after the attack, Hewitt said she finds herself struggling to feel comfortable again in the neighborhood where she’s lived for two decades.
“Our lives have changed. I’m afraid to go outside. My husband has to go with me,” she said. “And when we take Cindy out, you can tell she’s scared, too — she looks up the street in the direction the dog came from.”
(Sun Times - Feb 7, 2012)
