MAINE -- Police are working with the Sagadahoc County District Attorney’s Office and a local animal control officer to determine whether charges are appropriate following an incident Saturday in which a 5-year-old girl was attacked by two dogs.
A spokeswoman for Maine Medical Center in Portland said the girl was treated and released on Saturday. Brett Strout, chief deputy for Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department, said Monday the girl’s injuries were “significant,” but declined to provide further details.
He said the girl was playing in the yard with the dogs when she "made a sudden move and startled them", causing them to attack her from behind.
What is that supposed to mean? Was she supposed to tiptoe around them?
The dogs’ owner, who is related to the girl and lives next door to her on Birch Point Road, then killed the dogs by shooting them, Strout said.
The girl initially was taken by a family member to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick before being transferred to Maine Medical Center.
Strout said Tuesday that investigators are looking into whether the two boxers had ever been involved in an attack before, which could conceivably lead to a charge of keeping a dangerous dog, and whether their rabies vaccinations were current. Because the attack happened on the property where the dogs live, no immediate charges were filed in the aftermath of the attack.
Strout said the dogs were imported into the country two years ago from Denmark.
(Bangor Daily News - July 24, 2012)
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