To believe that this woman provoked the dog to attack her face is ridiculous. She was not kicking the dog. She was not beating it. She was not poking it with a stick. She was not arguing loudly with its owner. She was not making threatening gestures with her arms. She was petting it. That is what people do with dogs. A child would have been much more 'grabby' and loud.
INDIANA -- Over a month ago, Casey Sills was mauled by a dog. Her face has healed well over that time, but there is still visible marks from the incident.
Thursday night, a hearing was scheduled to decide the fate of the dog, Zeus, a Pit bull Labrador mix. However, Matt Harmon, Shelter Manager of South Bend Animal Care and Control (SBACC), read a statement before the hearing began.
"Due to the new witness and information," Harmon read. "We would like to withdraw our request for today's hearing. At this time there is no longer probable cause to believe that the dog was unprovoked. So again, we would like to withdraw our request for tonight's hearing."
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| You can't really blame the board. They can only make decisions on what is presented to them. This is Animal Control's fault. |
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| Sills was so shocked she got up and had to walk out. |
"Oh my God," Sills said. "This is just an insane amount of... I can't... This is too much. I just want my face fixed."
With the hearing canceled, Zeus will not be euthanized.
"I guess you're not supposed to be nice to animals," Sills said. "They need to consider what this is all about. This isn't about hating on anyone. This could potentially harm someone else."
Sills and Norris hugged in the hallway after the end of the meeting, showing there is no bad blood between the two.
In the video, it looks like she's hugging him more than he's hugging her. Also, he's walking away while she's still trying to talk to him. She never wanted the dog killed, she just wanted court-ordered restrictions to be put on the dog. Clearly, the owner believes this is all her fault (see below).
"It's an unfortunate thing that happened to her," Norris said. "I wish her the best in the world because I wouldn't want that to happen to my worse enemy, let alone someone I care about and I know.
"But she's grown. Any grown person knows you don't walk up to a stranger's dog and try to kiss it, or pet it or anything. It's common sense actually. You don't walk up to a strange dog and do anything to them really. At all."
Norris says while the Humane Society has not instructed him to do anything to prevent his dog from interacting with others, he is taking measures to make sure this accident never happens again.
"He's not a lap dog," Norris said. "He's not the type of dog you try to kiss. Literally now, when he goes outside, he goes outside from the front door to his cage right away and he gets chained up inside the cage. Then when he comes in the house, anytime someone comes to my door, he goes to his cage in the house.
"But when no one is here, he's out with the family. I'm not going to go through anything like this ever again in my life. I'll take precautions. My dog is very obedient. Whatever I tell him to do, he's going to do it."
Sills, a self proclaimed animal lover, didn't wish the dog to be euthanized but hoped he would be controlled so this wouldn't happen again.
"I'm at a loss for words anymore," Sills said. "I have no hatred in my heart. I just want to make sure no one else gets hurt. Now the dog is allowed to be around little kids and whatnot. I hope to God no kid makes a kissy [sic] noise to that dog. I was told that I did that to provoke it. Because someone's going to get killed."
SBACC declined comment after Thursday's meeting.
(WNDU - July 3, 2015)
Earlier:
I feel so badly for that woman. A dog like that should have been put down after doing something like that. AC just sent the message loud and clear, vicious dogs are more important than people.
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