INDIANA -- For the second time in less than a year a Rolling Prairie Elementary School student is recovering from a serious injury after being bitten by a pit bull in his LaPorte neighborhood.
The attacks were by two different dogs with different owners.
''He's scared to go out in the neighborhood and walk to a friend's house around the corner because he's afraid he's going to be bit again,'' said his mother, Sunsaerae Budimier.
The latest attack occurred Tuesday when Hunter Scott, 10, was playing with a friend on the friend's front porch on Oberreich Street in the northeast part of the city and the dog ran through an open front door.
Hunter received 12 stitches to the outside of his right arm and numerous sutures on the inside of his arm to close the wound, the mother said. Police said the boy suffered a four-inch long laceration that was one-inch deep.
''He has to go to an orthopedic surgeon to make sure there was no damage to the bone or to the tendon,'' Budimier said.
Hunter received nearly 40 stitches to his face last September when attacked by another pit bull in the 200 block of Darlington Street.
''They had to call in a plastic surgeon,'' said Budimier of the first attack.
Police said a warrant is being sought in the latest attack to charge the owners of the dog with harboring a non-immunized animal, a Class B misdemeanor.
The pit bull in this attack was ordered held by the couple's veterinarian for 10 days because its vaccinations had expired, police said. However, dog owner Amanda Kopf said Friday she and her husband have since had the dog euthanized.
"If he bit one boy, he's going to do it again," Kopf said, noting it was the first time the dog, Zeya, had bitten anyone. The family has four children.
Kopf, who expressed sorrow over the attack, said the dog's vaccinations had just expired on March 25.
In the first attack, no criminal charges were filed against that pet owner, who apparently was current on her dog's vaccinations, said LaPorte Police Capt. Tom Heath.
LaPorte Animal Control Officer Chuck Games said there is an ordinance giving the city authority to order an animal euthanized for more than one attack. ''It has to be an ongoing situation,'' Games said.
Budimier said her family moved to LaPorte from the Rolling Prairie area two years ago and her mother drives Hunter to and from the Rolling Prairie school each day.
''If you're not going to be a responsible pet owner, don't have pets. Now, twice my son has been traumatized and he's now going to have scars mentally and physically. It's not fair,'' Budimier said.
(South Bend Tribune - Apr 24, 2015)
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