Bermuda: Rottweiler owner fined $7,000 after boy is attacked, ordered to pay up to $10,000 in medical bills

BERMUDA -- A Warwick man whose Rottweiler attacked a 13-year-old boy was yesterday fined $7,000.

[Note: A check of the currency rates shows that $7000 in Bermudian dollars equals $7000 in US dollars.]

Reuben Waldron, of Bulkhead Drive, pleaded guilty to owning a dog that injured another person.

The dog bit the child multiple times, injuring his face, left arm and the left side of his abdomen, Magistrates’ Court heard.

Reuben Waldron with one of his Rottweilers

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke said the injuries from the dog bites were severe enough to require surgery.

The incident happened while the 43-year-old and the boy were walking Waldron’s two Rottweilers on July 30, Ms Clarke said.

Waldron had walked away, leaving the 13-year-old handling the dog alone, when the boy was attacked.

In court yesterday, Waldron said that the boy was familiar with his dogs and was helping train the dog at the time of the attack.

“During the whole summer, [he] had been coming to my house and both of us had been walking the dogs,” Waldron said. “I was just 30 or 40 feet away.”

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner asked what triggered the dog’s attack.

Waldron said that a number of things could have caused it, and he was too far away at the time to know exactly what happened.

He added, “I am totally sorry for what has happened.”

“This is the first time anything like this has happened” in his 15 years of owning Rottweilers, Waldron added.

He also pleaded guilty to a second charge of having the dog without a licence, between May 1 and July 31.

Mr Warner fined Waldron $2,000 for possession of the dog that injured the boy and $5,000 for having an unlicensed dog.

He also ordered Waldron to pay any injury costs for the child up to $10,000.

OWNER TRIED TO GET JUDGE TO "REHOME" VICIOUS DOG

Mr Warner ordered that the dog be euthanized despite Waldron’s request to be able to give the dog to a “better-suited” owner.

This is called NIMBY = not in my backyard. It's when cities and towns "rehome" vicious dogs into other communities, typically without any restrictions or documentation that would let everyone in this other community know what the dog had done. This is done to simply wash their hands of the problem - not caring if the dog then mauls and kills someone in this new community it's living in. Thankfully, this judge said NO to that idea.

(The Royal Gazette - Aug 29, 2013)