An eight-year-old retired racing greyhound named “Ringo” is dead following a deadly run-in with a female pit bull in Bluffton Park.
The dog’s owner, John Horishny, says a routine morning walk around Lake Isabelle quickly turned into a nightmare.
“Because I saw this dog walking along our normal path, I actually went along the far side of the lake and was walking around the far side and as we came around the corner down at the end, I realized that the woman walking the pit bull had come around from the opposite direction and we were kind of heading towards each other,” said Horishny.
A split second later, the pit bull, described by police as a black and white female, was charging at Ringo.
“That dog, as soon as it saw Ringo, started snarling and when it pulled she [the pit bull owner] dropped the leash,” said Horishny. “And the dog ran across and it was somewhere in this general area here between the road and the sidewalk.”
Ringo finally broke free and ran home, but the extent of his injuries were too severe. Puncture wounds to his legs, cuts down to the muscle, and blood dripping from his snout. Horishy rushed his dog to a local veterinarian, where Ringo underwent a five-hour-surgery on Thursday.
After returning home, Ringo’s condition deteriorated and he began to seize and pant heavily.
Horishny brought Ringo back to the vet, but there was nothing they could do to revive him. Ringo died from his injuries on Friday, two days after the attack.
Bluffton Police responded to the incident, once Horishny called after his first vet visit. Police requested a judge’s order to remove the pit bull from the Able Street home. The owner of the pit bull, who was walking the dog at the time, was cited with having an animal “at large.” After the judge’s order went through, the female pit bull was transported by animal control and is locked up at the Beaufort County animal shelter awaiting the June court date.
“She is here and there is a court date coming up in the next few weeks,” said Joy Nelson, Beaufort County spokeswoman. “At that point the judge will decide the ultimate outcome for the animal.”
Euthanasia is a possible outcome. Horishny posted about his dog’s injuries on the private Bluffton Park neighborhood Facebook page. The post has garnered hundreds of responses since the attack and members on the page are rallying behind Horishny, some even suggesting a memorial at the park where it happened.
Horishny says dozens of Bluffton Park residents have called the Bluffton Police and animal control about the dog and their concerns regarding the small children in the neighborhood.
“First of all that dog, that individual dog, I don’t think needs to be reintroduced and I don’t think it was an optimal place where it was given the guidance from an early age I would guess,” said Horishny.
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| RIP Ringo |
On Wednesday, WJCL news knocked on the pit bull owner’s door. The man who answered the door said his dog, Gidget, is “nice and wasn’t trained to be mean.” When asked, he did say she attacked a Bluffton Park jogger, who was later hospitalized. He said he thinks it’s because the dog was protecting his grandchild.
The court date for Ringo’s attack is set for the end of June.
For more pictures of Ringo before and after the attack, click here
(WJCL - May 28, 2015)
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