Meredith Fortier, of Deep Wood Drive, said she was surprised the dog, Bubba, was immediately returned to his owners two doors down from her after the Sept. 5 attack on Elizabeth Hiatt, 62, also of Forestdale.
“We have lots of young children” on the street, Fortier said. “We have lots of people walking dogs. That was a pretty serious attack.”
“There’s a whole lot of angry neighbors wanting to know why the dog is still there,” said Wayne Cobb, also of Deep Wood Drive, whose pet Samoyed received minor injuries in the attack.
INCOMPETENT ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER
Sandwich Animal Control Officer John M. Pimental said the black-and-white 4-year-old pit bull mix did not appear to present a danger when officials arrived on the scene.
“The dog was very docile. He was inside the car, wagging his tail,” said Pimental, who said Bubba’s owners have been ordered to keep the 100-pound dog muzzled when he goes outside until further notice.
“It was a dog-on-dog attack,” Pimental said. “The woman got in the middle of it.”
No John. This is a clear example of an uncontrollable, vicious dog - that is 100% guaranteed to do it again. The victim has broken bones in her arms, due to the viciousness of the attack by this 100-pound Pit Bull. Add in that the owners are in complete denial about their vicious dog and you have a recipe for disaster.
On the afternoon of the attack, Hiatt was walking Bubba on a leash as a favor to the dog's owners, Clifford Gardner, 80, and his wife, Edith, who Hiatt said are friends of hers from church and are in frail health.
She had walked Bubba daily for a few weeks and was accompanied by her daughter, her granddaughter in a stroller, and a friend from out of town.
But this time when Bubba saw Cobb walking his dog, Klondike, on the other side of the street, he broke free of his collar and lunged for the elderly 13-year-old Samoyed, holding him on the ground by his neck.
“I immediately got on my knees and started pounding Bubba to let go,” Cobb said.
When that didn’t work Cobb said he put both his hands in Bubba’s mouth and tried to pry his jaws open.
“I released enough pressure so my dog could get loose,” Cobb said.
Klondike the Husky manged to get to his fee and fled, with his owner Cobb in pursuit, creating a gory spectacle for children getting off the bus after their first day of school, neighbor Dyan Craddock said.
“(Cobb) ran by with his arms dripping with blood,” Craddock said. “He warned us not to go that way. It was frightening."
“When (Bubba) finally released, that’s when he attached to me,” Hiatt said. “He went straight to me.”
“It was such a terrifying thing,” Hiatt said. “He bit me on my right arm, my left arm. He also bit me on the face.”
Bubba fastened on her left hand, grinding it so hard her flesh came loose in flaps, Hiatt said.
X-rays at Boston Medical Center, where she spent three days, showed her bones were pocked with bite marks and the long bones in her forearm were both fractured.
“There’s got to be some difference between a single bite and two years worth of physical therapy,” Hiatt said.
Korsh said she tried to call Bubba off her mother and then resorted to pulling his leash and kicking him, while a good Samaritan drove up and put Korsh’s baby and stroller in her car.
The attack ended only when Clifford Gardner, alerted by Hiatt’s friend, came up and threw his body over Bubba, Korsh said.
ANIMAL CONTROL ARRIVES TO SAVE THE DAY... BUT INSTEAD HANDS THE VICIOUS PIT BULL BACK TO ITS OWNERS AND DRIVES OFF!
Sandwich deputy animal control Officer Walter Fagnant Jr. said he and a police officer decided to release Bubba to his owners because the dog was calm and they were sympathetic to the Gardners’ medical situation.
He claimed that there had been no prior complaints against the Pit Bull, which Edith Gardner said was adopted from a Fall River organization two years ago.
However, several neighbors stated this is untrue; that the Pit Bull has - on numerous occasions - been running loose and menaced them, their pets and their children.
William Gilbert, of Forestdale, said that three weeks before Bubba went after Hiatt the dog ran toward his granddaughter during a walk around the block with Gilbert's miniature long-haired dachshund.
Bubba "just circled around us for a little bit”, menacing them and followed them until a neighbor called him off, said Gilbert, who said he scooped his granddaughter onto his shoulders.
Another Deep Wood Drive resident, Mark Govoni, said, “Bubba came charging up from behind the bushes” to attack his Siberian husky, an incident that occurred three days before the attack on Hiatt.
Govoni, who said he is a retired state police officer, said he was shaken to come across the aftermath of Hiatt’s mauling attack a few days later.
“She was ripped to shreds, both arms,” Govoni said.
After Fagnant Jr. handed the vicious Pit Bull back to the Gardners and drove away, the victims and neighbors were furious at his indifference and incompetence, prompting a number of phone calls and emails to town officials from concerned neighbors, according to complaint reports obtained by the Times through a public records request.
“There’s 19 children on our street under the age of 13,” and Halloween is coming up, Craddock said. “I love my dogs, but I love human life a little bit more.”
PIT BULL OWNERS EDITH GARDNER AND CLIFF GARDNER BLAME THE VICTIM
The Gardners blamed the attack on Cobb, whom they said routinely harassed and yelled at Bubba.
“I think it has a lot to do with what Wayne does when he walks by,” Edith Gardner said.
But witnesses disputed that account, as well as social media comments that Klondike had started the fight.
“There was no taunting from Wayne. There was no movement from Klondike,” Korsh said.
Hiatt and the Gardners will get a chance to tell their stories during the hearing at 10 a.m. Oct. 25 in the basement of the Sandwich Council on Aging building at 270 Quaker Meetinghouse Road, Pimental said.
The Gardners “are an elderly couple, and they would like to keep their dog,” Pimental said. “There are certain procedures you have to go through.”
Clifford Gardner says his attorney advised him not to comment.
David J. DeConto, director of the town's Natural Resources Department, said the dangerous dog hearing would be the first held in the town in the 10 years he has been with the department.
The hearing, being held at the request of the Hiatt family, will be presided over by Police Chief Peter Wack and is open to the public.
The last serious dog attack in Sandwich to be reported in the press occurred April 5, 2014, at a residence on Salt Marsh Road, when a male pit bull-boxer mix named Drewski ripped the lower lip of a visiting woman off down to the jawline.
The dog’s owner surrendered him to animal control, which returned him to the Worcester Animal Rescue League.
The league's executive director, Allie Tellier, said Drewski has been adopted out once again, with no problems “whatsover.”
Well now I know where John Pimental gets it... the entire area is full of morons. They took a dog that ripped off the lower lip of its victim, someone who was not attacking/beating it, and they ship it off to a new owner?! Did they bother to tell the new owner's neighbors about this vicious dog's history? Of course not. They're just interested in getting the dog out of their building and proclaiming it a success story: "We rehomed Drewski! He's such a misunderstood wigglebutt. So what if that lady can't drink out a straw or whistle for the rest of her life. It's all about saving dogs, AMIRIGHT? RIGHT?! By the way, donate money to is - the Worcester Animal Rescue League - so we can ship a vicious dog off to YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!"
Bubba’s attack last month left Hiatt with about 100 stitches and numbness in her right ring and little fingers, Hiatt said.
She said she has to wait before starting physical therapy on her left hand, which looked “like ground beef” at first.
The Gardners are victims, too, Hiatt said. She said she was glad Clifford Gardner was able to come to her rescue, and that Bubba missed her tendons and nerve junctions.
“I just think about what could’ve happened had we been around the corner,” Hiatt said. “I would have really been in trouble.”
* * * * * *
THIS IS WHO THE TOWN OF SANDWICH, MASSACHUSETTS EMPLOYS AS AN ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER
Massachusetts State Board of Plumbers Announces Recent Enforcement Actions
Walter Fagnant Jr., Sandwich: The Board announced that Walter Fagnant, Jr. has agreed to a stayed suspension effective May 8, 2007. He admitted to the Board that he had taken money from a consumer for a job he never began and took three years to provide a refund to the customer. To resolve the matter, Mr. Fagnant agreed to a stayed suspension served as probation for one year and to pay a $100 fine.
(Cape Cod Times - October 11, 2017)
