“Probably ten minutes,” Henderson said on Friday when asked how long a pit bull attacked his eleven-year-old dog while they were on a walk Wednesday night in his Waterloo neighborhood.
If not for a Waterloo police officer happening to drive by during the attack, Henderson’s dog would have likely been killed just one block from his apartment building.
Henderson, 56, had moved from Kansas weeks before to join his wife, who had taken a job in the area. He was walking in the 300 block of Western Avenue, just south of downtown Waterloo, near sunset on Wednesday evening. He said he caught the sight of an unleashed pit bull on a sidewalk across 4th Street West.
As he led Phoenix away from the pit bull, he turned back around to see the pit bull charging at full speed right at them.
“(The pit bull) grabbed on to the neck and dragged (my dog) down,” Henderson said.
As the struggle kept up, Officer Ed Savage was driving by before he stopped and got out to help.
Henderson said Savage fired his Taser at the pit bull. That didn’t work. Using a container of pepper spray also did not work. Henderson said the officer then hit the pit bull with a baton.
Still, the pit bull bit into Phoenix.
Finally, Henderson said Savage communicated back to Waterloo Police, requesting permission to shoot the dog. After securing permission, the officer told the dog owner to get back and Savage shot the pit bull once, in the back. The pit bull let go of Phoenix before stepping away and collapsing. The dog died soon after.
Henderson said Phoenix was in surgery at a local pet hospital. On Friday afternoon, the 11-year-old dog was limbering around its home but with chewed-up flesh all in the neck region and at the top of its front legs.
Fears of this kind of attack, from an aggressive and loose dog, do concern others in the area.
“We have been terrified and we’ve called the police and the humane society about it,” said Wanda Lenius, who was with her husband walking two small dogs in the block of Wednesday’s attack. “I do carry some forms of protection with me that are legal.”
Kim Maclin is a landlord with multiple properties through Waterloo, including the house the Hendersons are renting.
“Generally speaking, people are afraid of them and, if you see one, that can be really scary,” Maclin said. She added that it is not a breed issue as much as an owner issue in this neighborhood, which tilts heavily towards rental units instead of home owners.
“If the owners aren’t good, you’re not going to have good pets,” said Maclin.
(KCRG - April 6, 2012)
