MASSACHUSETTS -- Three young children saw their family dog killed by a neighbor’s pit bull, the dead dog’s owner said Monday.
The children, ages 5, 7 and 10 witnessed the attack and saw their grandfather try to save their smaller Maltese from the pit bull, George D’Agostino, the youngsters’ father, said Monday.
His father, Ronald D’Agostino, 68, was playing in their driveway with his grandchildren when the incident occurred at about 6:50 p.m. on Friday.
The elder D’Agostino sustained minor bites to his hand attempting to rescue their dog, he confirmed. The children were not hurt.
Their dog was dead at the scene.
Police on Monday provided an updated and more complete account of the incident. The police report had not been completed Saturday, said Lt. Tom Schlatz, when The Enterprise first spoke to police, and as a result gave some erroneous information for a story that ran on Sunday.
Police identified the pit bull’s owner as Jean Kenny, 24, of South Street. His property abuts South Meadow Drive, where the D’Agostinos live.
According to the police report, Kenny told officers his younger brother let his two pit bulls into the back yard of his property while he was cooking dinner Friday evening. There is a spot in the chain-link fence enclosing his backyard that the dogs can crawl under, which he told police he had not had time to fix.
Only one of the pit bulls was involved in the attack.
Kenny told police he heard screams and ran out the back of his house to corral the dogs. Another witness told police Ronald D’Agostino had already wrenched the smaller dog away from the pit bull and fled to the family garage, before Kenny was able to secure his dog.
Kenny was not able to provide police with vaccination records for either dog and said it had been a while since either had seen a vet. He is not facing any charges, police said.
Lakeville Animal Control responded to assist Bridgewater police, and took the dog involved in the attack, a 5-year-old brown and white pit bull, for quarantine. It will be held for 10 days or until the owner shows its vaccination record.
This is at least the fourth dog attack police have responded to since mid-February, when health agent Eric Badger, who served part-time as animal control, resigned from the post. Badger had volunteered to take on the added responsibilities for a $100-per-week stipend, but said the position got to be too much.
The 2014 town budget that began Monday, the first day of the fiscal year, included $25,000 to hire an animal control officer.
Town Manager Michael Dutton said two candidates will be interviewed for the position this week.
“We’re hoping to hire someone as soon as possible,” he said. “We were hoping to have someone hired yesterday.”
(Enterprise News - July 2, 2013)
