Thursday, August 15, 2013

NIMBY: Georgia dumps vicious pit bull, which left boy with 'facial paralysis', on New York

"Life of Effingham pit bull spared"

GEORGIA -- A judge has decided that a pit bull that attacked a 5-year-old Effingham boy a year ago should be allowed to live at a rescue center in New York.


Effingham County Superior Court Chief Judge William E. Woodrum Jr. decided today that the life of the dog Kno should be spared.

The dog can’t be used for breeding purposes, be around children or be adopted.

Glen Wild Animal Rescue and its owner, Liz Keller, will be subject to the jurisdiction of Effingham County Superior Court “for any and all future matters involving Kno,” the judge wrote.

“Based on the entire record in this matter, and the Court’s observations, the Court finds that although the minor child suffered severe injuries, Kno is not a vicious dog such that Effingham County should be permitted to euthanize the dog,” he wrote in a two-page decision.

“Rather, the Court finds that the injuries sustained were the result of a series of unfortunate events,” he wrote.

Kno’s court-appointed pro-bono attorney, Mickey Kicklighter, argued in a hearing on July 30 that there were two reports circulating about what happened when Kno bit the boy as he played with his brother and a friend at a neighbor’s house in the Paddleford Subdivision on July 24, 2012.

Kicklighter said one report was that the dog had a sore on its back that the boys were told to leave alone, but didn’t, and the second report was that the boys were screaming in the dog’s face.

Wesley Frye was bitten on the cheek, chin and leg. He was flown to a Savannah hospital where he underwent eight hours of surgery.


He still has facial paralysis and is terrified of dogs, his mother said.

The mother, Melissa Frye, wasn’t there at the time of the attack but said it was not provoked.

She initially said she wouldn’t mind if the dog were kept alive under certain conditions, including that the dog be kept away from children and not be adopted. She also hoped the dog could be studied to help determine what causes dogs to attack.

But at the July 30 hearing she said she had changed her mind and asked that the dog be euthanized. County attorney Elizabeth Pavlis also asked that the dog be euthanized.

The judge said he visited Kno at the county animal shelter, where the dog has lived for the last year in a 6-by-5-foot pen, and met the boy.

The owners of the dog, Julie Grace and Larry A. Long, turned Kno over to the county immediately after the attack.

Kicklighter has 30 days to arrange to have Kno transported to New York.
(Savannah Now - Aug 15, 2013)

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