IDAHO -- Ten-year-old Quinten Haertle was recovering at home Friday after receiving a serious dog bite to the face the day before.
“The doctors did a wonderful job stitching up his face. There are so many stitches I can’t count them,” said Quinten’s father, Steve Haertle.
Quinten was chased and bitten by a Great Dane, owned by Ruth Elisa Rockwell, in the 1800 block of L Street at about 2:45 p.m. Thursday, according to a Heyburn police report.
The dog has been quarantined for 10 days at the Minidoka County animal shelter so it can be tested for rabies.
“We would like to have the dog destroyed,” Steve Haertle said.
According to a witness, the dog jumped through a fence and attacked the boy — leaving the child laying in a fetal position, covering his face and screaming.
Quinten was taken by ambulance to Minidoka Memorial Hospital.
“He’s in a lot of pain right now,” Steve Haertle said.
Steve Haertle said Quinten was walking home from his aunt’s house, about seven to eight blocks from his own home, when the attack occurred.
When the dog escaped from the fence, his father said, Quinten took off running and the dog jumped on him.
Quinten did nothing to antagonize or provoke the dog, Steve Haertle said.
Quinten suffered injuries to the lower portion of his jaw on the right side of his face, up to his ear.
“He’s pretty bruised up,” Steve Haertle said.
According to the police report, Quinten also sustained puncture wounds to the back of his head and had a small laceration on his left knee.
The report said Rockwell captured the dog and put it in a kennel inside her home. She was cooperative with police and brought the dog out to animal control on a leash..
“Ruth was also very concerned about the boy who had been injured,” the report reads.
Rockwell showed police where the dog had knocked over the fence and where the family was in the process of building a new wooden fence.
The dog was friendly toward police and showed no signs of aggression, the report said.
According to the report, no charges are being filed at this time.
(Twin Falls Times-News - August 18, 2012)
