A little after 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Bull Mastiff/Pit Bull mix was on the loose around the corner of Kenwood and Parnell Avenue in Fort Wayne.
Around that time, a woman let her house cat outside in her yard. The cat was attacked by the loose dog. The woman tried beating and kicking the dog, but it wouldn't let go, and killed her cat.
According to Sgt. Randy Thornton, enforcement divisions supervisor at Animal Care, the owner is Amy Hart, who recently became a Fort Wayne resident.
"Very seldom are people totally honest with us," Thornton said. "Everybody has a story. Everybody wants to make up lies, but this young lady was very truthful, very straight forward. She wanted to accept full responsibility for her actions and this dog."
Struggle for Survival
That dog then ran across the street to its next victim, Angela Diamente’s Boxer. Diamente had been walking her dog and pushing her two-year-old in a stroller. Diamente said the Mastiff/Pit Bull mix went straight for her dog’s neck.
Neighbor Austin Crist saw the attack and ran to help.
“I ran over here and there was blood everywhere so I came over here and helped her and I pushed her two-year-old to safety over by Dairy Queen,” Crist said.
Diamente said she wrestled with the Mastiff/Pit Bull mix for about 10 to 15 minutes. She said she tried to pry its mouth open to free her dog, puncturing the inside of her hands. The dog dragged her across some gravel, which cut up the outside of her hands and knees.
“It got to the point where we got into my neighbor's driveway and it was gravel and I could barely move,” Diamente said. “At that point, I was able to crawl on top of the dog and climb on top of him and I wrapped my whole body around him and got his jaw open. They dragged my dog inside and I stayed like that until the police came.”
Diamente said her Boxer has a lot of muscle torn out of his chest, puncture wounds, is missing part of his right ear, and a lot of holes in his neck. He is on a lot of medication but she said miraculously, he will make a full recovery.
History of Aggression
The Mastiff / Pit Bull mix, Rello, was taken to Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control.
“A dog that is not initially human aggressive, but is animal aggressive, can still be a very dangerous animal,” said Belinda Lewis, director of Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control. “We don’t take animal attacks on other animals any more lightly than we take a human attack.”
The dog has a previous bite record in Allen County. According to a report, Rello was brought into Animal Care and Control in October of 2012 for attacking and biting chickens in Allen County.
Where's the Owner?
On October 18, the owner at the time of the chicken attacks transferred Rello's ownership to Adan Galvan, a friend. Galvan is said to have known of Rello’s aggressive history.
Thornton said Galvan transferred ownership to Hart on that same day. Galvan is said to have withheld information on Rello’s aggressive history.
Hart told investigators she was in the shower when Rello escaped on Tuesday. She didn’t know where he went until she saw the story on WANE.com. Thornton said she came forward and has been extremely cooperative with authorities. She has been charged with one count of a potentially dangerous dog and faces up to $2,500 in penalties.
Thornton said that penalty could be reduced if Hart pays for damages and the victims' medical expenses.
Rello has been surrendered to Animal Care and will be humanely euthanized.
Diamente in the meantime is left with both physical scars on her hands and emotional wounds after the haunting situation that she calls terrifying.
“I didn't want my daughter to watch my dog be murdered in front of her," Diamente said. "So it was just all of those emotions to the point where I just kind of pushed myself as much as I could until I stopped him."
(WANE- Nov 7, 2012)
