North Carolina: Dog bouncing back from impalement

NORTH CAROLINA -- A dog impaled on a fence Saturday is recovering and should be back home soon.

Wilbur, a Labrador, lives with his family along South New Hope Road - spending time in his fenced in yard and inside the house near Belmont.

His owners left the house to run errands Saturday and returned to find the dog stuck on their wrought iron fence.

Wilbur's owners, and some workers in a nearby field, came over to hold the 90-pound dog up.

Mary Anne Dixon said she wasn't sure 911 was the right place to call, but firefighters responded and graciously helped, she said.

Firefighters with the New Hope Fire Department used a battery-operated tool often brought out to rescue people from mangled cars to cut off a portion of the fence. They also called an emergency animal hospital to let them know the situation.

Firefighters did not want to remove the piece of fence from Wilbur's hip, just a few inches from his tail, for fear they'd hurt him further.

Dixon and her family rushed Wilbur to the Charlotte clinic where he went through exploratory surgery.

None of the dog's vital organs were punctured by the piece of fencing that went clear through his hind quarters, Dixon said.

Dixon's home backs up to a field and trees that often attract large birds. She suspect's Wilbur wanted to chase one of them and used a piece of lawn furniture to start his jump. He did not clear the 6-foot tall fence.

Before moving to Belmont, the family had a lower fence that Wilbur was able to jump over. Dixon has never known him to try to make it over the one now surrounding her yard.

Since the incident, Wilbur has been recovering, and Dixon expects to bring him home in about three days.

In the meantime, she and her family are making visits to him at the animal hospital, and they're looking at making some changes to the yard.

Dixon plans to move all lawn furniture away from the perimeter of the yard, and she's considering changing the type of fence that surrounds it. The tops of the fence are pointed and spear-like.

Firefighters with the department stopped by Monday afternoon to get an update on Wilbur.

Dixon said she was grateful for the help she received.

"They were absolutely fabulous," she said. "They were very caring and gentle with him."

(Gaston Gazette - Aug 1, 2016)

Earlier:

• North Carolina: Dog accidentally impaled on fence expected to survive

North Carolina: Dog accidentally impaled on fence expected to survive

NORTH CAROLINA -- Saturday afternoon, a dog found itself stuck on a fence after fire officials said he underestimated a jump over the fence in Gaston County.

The New Hope Fire Department assistant fire chief said it appears the dog tried to jump off of a concrete bench over a 6-foot tall fence when he became impaled on a pointed aluminum rod.

The animal's owners ran over, held him up and called 911 around 1:15 p.m.

 

Expecting a chain-link fence, firefighters from the New Hope Fire Department brought bolt cutters only to find that the dog was stuck on top of a wrought iron fence.

Based on images tweeted by the fire department it appears the rod went through the dog near his hip and tail.

They used a battery-operated tool often used to extract people from crashed cars to cut off a portion of the fence. They did not attempt to pull the dog off of the fence for fear of injuring him further. The tool was effective with cutting the fence, and worked smoothly as to not jar the animal, according to Assistant Fire Chief David Brumbaugh.

The dog stayed calm and did not whine even as the metal post stuck through his left hip a few inches from his tail, Brumbaugh said.

During the rescue, firefighters pulled a car up to the fence to give the dog a surface to rest on and take pressure of off the puncture. Then battery operated cutters were used to cut out a portion of the fence with it still in the dog in hopes of not causing further injury.

While firefighter Lane Odom cut the fence, the crew contacted an emergency veterinarian clinic to let them know the dog was coming.

The dog was rushed to an animal hospital where he is recovering. The assistant fire chief said the dog seems to be in good spirits, was drinking water and not whining or crying.

(WNCN - July 31, 2016)

Navarre woman: 'My puppies didn't murder anything'

FLORIDA -- The owner of two puppies found in a neighbor’s yard with pieces of dead chicken says her dogs would never have killed anything.

Heather Miller, of Birmingham Drive in Navarre, says she heard her dogs “screaming” from several doors down and went down the street to see them being beaten with a stick in a neighbor’s yard.

She said the puppies’ mother, who was hit by a car and killed two days earlier, might have killed chickens. But the puppies would not have.

“I don’t know if they would have ate the chickens after they were already dead,” she said. “I know my puppies didn’t murder anything.”

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is conferring with the State Attorney’s Office to determine whether any charges will be filed against Ronald Bliss, the Navarre man who killed the puppies and an adult dog belonging to another neighbor.

According to Florida statute, satisfactory proof that a dog has been or is killing any domestic livestock or pet is a “good defense” for killing that dog.

Bliss told deputies that he came home Sunday morning to find a large black dog and two puppies eating his chickens, according to the SRSO incident report.

Bliss said he scared the black dog off and went to tell the owner to get his dog. When he returned, he found the three dogs in his yard “eating more chickens,” the report said.

His yard is fenced and the chickens were in his yard, the deputy noted. Of his 16 chickens, only five survived.

The yard was strewn with feathers and pieces of chicken, the deputy noted.

Bliss reportedly beat the dogs with a fence post he pulled out of the ground.

The puppies were found dead on his property, while the black dog ran home.

An animal control officer went to Miller’s house to talk to her about the incident, but she wouldn’t come out and talk to him.

She told the deputy she was too emotional to talk. Her friends told the deputy she had been drinking heavily.

“I about lost my mind,” Miller told the Daily News, denying that she was intoxicated when the deputy spoke to her. “The cops kept trying to put me in jail for disorderly conduct.”

(NWF Daily News - Dec 10, 2015)