"He started playing football for school, and now he can't play," said Jacob Gustafson, father of 12-year-old Dylan Gustafson. "This was a very, very severe bite. It literally looks like he was shot by a shotgun."
The youth underwent surgery at Allen Hospital to close what his grandfather called a "pop-can sized" leg wound. He returned home but took the rest of the week off from school to recuperate.
Unfortunately, Monday's attack wasn't the family's first brush with an out-of-control dog. Dylan's younger brother, 7-year-old Levi, was bitten on the leg about three weeks earlier.
It was a different dog and happened in a different part of town, the parents said.
"It's ridiculous. I think things need to be changed," said the boys' mother, Emily Gustafson.
Animal control officials said the dog in the first attack, which resulted in four stitches for Levi, was returned to its owner.
Under the city's potentially dangerous dog ordinance, the owner had to have the dog --- a pit bull-lab mix --- microchipped and photographed, pay a registration fee and carry at least $300,000 in insurance, said Darrell Johnson, Animal Control officer supervisor for the Cedar Bend Humane Society.
In Dylan's attack, the animal is partway through a 10-day quarantine because the owner couldn't prove it had been vaccinated, Johnson said. At the end of the period, the owner can opt to forfeit the dog for euthanization, apply to have it returned under dangerous dog process or appeal the process.
The owner was also cited for fear of attack and dog at large, and each violation comes with a $100 fine, Johnson said.
Jacob Gustafson is offended that the dogs are getting a second chance, which he sees as a safety issue.
"I believe if a dog bites like that, they should be put down," Jacob Gustafson said. "The thing that gets me, if that had been a 5- or 6-year-old kid around the neck, the kid wouldn't have lived."
The mother said she has been talking to City Council members about her concerns.
According to the family, Levi was attacked while he played outside a relative's house in the 1600 block of Hawthorne Avenue.
Monday's incident took place about 100 feet from the family's home at Woodland Terrace Mobile Home Park off of Independence Avenue. Dylan was sent to find his younger brother at about 8 p.m. when he saw the dog come toward him, his father said. The boy tried to jump onto the hood of a nearby car, but the dog latched onto his leg, and the owner had to pull the dog off, according to the father.
"It wouldn't let go of him," Jacob Gustafson said. "What if that was a little kid who couldn't get away?"
(WCF Courier - Sept 2, 2012)
