Dog attacks children walking from mass; other dog, crossing guard fight it off

OKLAHOMA -- For years, Ed Averyt has kept the students at All Saints Catholic School safe while they crossed the street.

However, the sidewalk these kids take to mass every Wednesday turned dangerous this week.

Averyt said, “Right about here there was a student on the ground with a dog on [her].”

 

The students were walking back to school from mass when two dogs jumped in the middle of their group.

One started to attack.

 

When the children started screaming , several people immediately stopped to help.

One of those people was Averyt.

He raced over with his cross walk sign and used it to beat the dog off the kids.

“It started to lunge at me and I took a step into it and I hit it with the pole,” he said. “And I was still down like this with it and I had the pole raised and it started to take a second lunge at me and I dropped it on the crown of its head.”

That dog, a Dogo Argentino, bit three students and knocked several others to the ground, giving one girl a concussion.

The attack dog, a Dogo Argentino, looks like this one.

“The student who received the worst of it actually started kicking the dog to protect her classmate and the dog turned on her,” said Leslie Schmitt, the principal of the school. “So, she has several bite marks and had to receive stitches in six or seven different places in her arms.”

Witnesses say a Great Pyrenees actually tried to stop the other dog from mauling the children.
 

Both dogs were captured in a nearby neighborhood and turned over to animal control.

School officials say without Averyt’s help, the situation could have ended tragically.

Schmitt said, “There were many a good Samaritans.”

The dog that attacked the children was euthanized and sent to the Department of Health to be tested for rabies.

Thankfully, the test came back negative.

Police say both dogs, the Great Pyrenees and the Dogo Argentino, belonged to the same owner and escaped the backyard at the same time.

 

The owners were able to pick up the Great Pyrenees but were given several tickets for the attack.

School officials say the students will not be walking to and from mass anymore.

(KFOR - Nov 21, 2013)

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