LEWISTON, MAINE -- A Lewiston family's dog was mauled to death by a pit bull that was up for adoption at the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society.
Dee Santos says she and her children are devastated over the brutal death of their beloved Yorkshire Terrier named Rocco.
"He was like family,” Santos said. “Everybody loved him, my neighbors, everybody that used to come to my house."
Santos says her 17-year-old daughter suffered a mental breakdown after witnessing the death of the family dog and being bitten, which broke her hand.
A friend of the teen had gone to the shelter and "borrowed" the Pit Bull.
The shelter apparently lets people take adoptable dogs for a walk, but the shelter claims they told the girl's friend to avoid other animals while walking the Pit Bull.
If the shelter knew it was animal aggressive, why would they even try to adopt it out??? Yeah we know. To either keep their euthanasia numbers down or they simply don't care that vicious, animal aggressive dogs attack and kill other animals.
This person immediately took the Pit Bull to his friend's house.
Santos says as soon as the pit bull entered the apartment it went straight for the family's Yorkie tearing the little animal apart.
"Everything happened so fast," Santos said.
They say the harder they tried to pull the two dogs apart, the harder he bit down.
Santos and her children tried to stop the Pit Bull from killing their dog. The Pit Bull then attacked her daughter, breaking the bones in her hand. The dog also attacked her daughter's friend.
"All of my three kids witnessed everything,” Santos said. “And it was brutal. I mean, the way that dog looked like a monster."
Santos said, " I lost my dog, nothing will replace that. Nothing. That's very sad right now. I lost my dog and I have my daughter in the hospital. That's two of the people I love the most."
SHELTER CLAIMS THEY'RE SURPRISED
The humane society director Steven Dostie says he feels "awful" about what happened. He claims the Pit Bull had shown no signs of aggression before the deadly attack.
Dostie said the shelter’s instructions for the dog also included a warning that it shouldn’t be around cats or young children. But, he said, the dog had not been a problem since it arrived at the shelter in February. It was merely “a little rambunctious,” he claimed.
Oh yeah? Then why would you tell people to keep away from other animals and not to take it to the dog park if you didn't know it was aggressive? You all knew this dog was vicious - and yet you were still trying to foist it on people.
The pit bull will be quarantined for ten days to make sure it doesn't have rabies, then will be euthanized.
Santos said she got Rocco, who weighed 4 pounds, from a breeder five years ago. He made himself part of the family, she said.
“We spoiled him big time,” Santos said. “He was like another son for me. He was such a good dog. He was a doll. He was all love.”
MAINE -- Linda Richard Wilt posted on Facebook February 28, 2018 ·
Just had a pit bull attack Bella while we were out for a walk. She's okay, but it was terrifying... My poor baby girl.
I had to kick the pit bull in the head four times. It was horrible. Poor Bella's jaw shook for an hour, she was so scared.
Dawn Arsenault - Poor Bella! Did it hurt her???
Linda Richard Wilt - No open wounds, but her jaw was shaking she was so scared.
Diane Hanshew - Wow, you’re really lucky that you are both ok. We just had an incident here this week where a man was walking his chihuahua and was attacked by 4 pit bulls. 2 of them got his dog, and the other 2 got the man. It took 3 adult men to rescue the man. All pit bulls were euthanized. In addition to his arms and leg, the man has multiple head wounds that are going to need plastic surgery repair. Unfortunately, his little dog also had to be euthanized. So glad you guys are ok.
Linda Richard Wilt - OMG!!
Tracy Packard Merrill - It is scary! I had a pitbull attack my female lab. It took the owner hitting it with a 2 by 4 before it let go of my poor dog. She wasn’t doing anything to him either. Lucky you are both OK
Linda Richard Wilt - I will be carrying something with me from this point on.
MAINE -- Surveillance video and a police 911 tape released Friday under a public records request reveal a harrowing account of two pit bulls attacking a woman and her small dog in Winslow.
The release of the tapes come as authorities continue to investigate the disappearance of the dangerous dogs this week just minutes after the state’s high court upheld their death sentence.
DO YOU RECOGNIZE THESE MAULERS? DANIELLE JONES
HAS STOLEN THEM FROM THE SHELTER AND HIDDEN THEM
TO TRY TO PREVENT THEM FROM BEING EUTHANIZED.
In the video, obtained by police from a nearby business, Sharron Carey can be seen last year walking down Lucille Avenue in Winslow around 12:40 p.m. with her Boston terrier, Fergie Rose.
Two giant gray pit bulls sprint across the front yard and to the road from behind a home, viciously attacking the small dog as its owner, Sharron Carey, tries to fight them off with her hands.
The dogs then attacked Carey, seriously injuring her.
“The dog’s dead — oh, my God,” a 911 caller and witness who reported the attack is heard saying in a separate police audio tape.
The chilling surveillance video and tape from Aug. 30, 2016, were obtained Friday by the Morning Sentinel under a Freedom of Access Act request to the Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office.
The witness, a neighbor who has called police, frantically tells a dispatcher that pit bulls are attacking a woman and that she needs help.
“This is awful,” the caller cries, as the dispatcher asks her to tell Carey that help is on the way.
The neighbor, who repeatedly gasps and cries out, “Oh, my God,” throughout the tape, tells the dispatcher that people are trying to get the dogs off the woman and then says, “The owner is there … she can’t control them.”
The caller thought three dogs were mauling the small dog, but the third dog was later determined to not be involved in the attack.
The video tape shows the pit bulls’ owner, Danielle Jones, appearing from the side and going up the steps to her house. She turns around and simply stands there - as though she doesn't know what to do about her two Pit Bulls that are attacking a woman and tearing her beloved little dog into pieces.
The Pit Bulls can be seen latched onto the dog and thrashing it around the front yard and roadside.
Shortly thereafter, a police cruiser pulls up. Dogs are seen throughout the video, running around the lawn. Eventually, Jones leads one of the dogs into the house.
Two pit bulls in the attack were later declared dangerous by a court and ordered to be euthanized. Jones appealed the case and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday upheld that court ruling.
But the pit bulls, Kole and Bentley, remained nowhere to be found Friday, three days after Jones CLAIMED they had slipped their leashes and escaped as she was walking them outside the Webb Road animal shelter Tuesday afternoon.
Waterville police are investigating the case and Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey says it is doubtful the dogs actually slipped their leashes and are running loose.
“We’re still working on it and hopefully, we can come up with them,” Massey said Friday of the missing dogs.
The dogs had been held at the Humane Society Waterville Area animal shelter.
Michael Brown, president of the board of directors for the Humane Society Waterville Area, said Friday morning that he is not sure if there are rules regarding whether the owner of a dog deemed dangerous is allowed to come to the shelter and walk it outside, as Jones had apparently been allowed to do. Tuesday was not the first time Jones had come to walk the pit bulls — she had walked them outside the shelter on previous occasions, according to police.
“We’re looking into all those policies,” Brown said Friday morning. “I can’t tell you right now what the answer is to that, unfortunately. I know we’re looking into that.”
But Brown reiterated what he said Thursday about the Humane Society’s commitment to work with authorities to ensure the public and other animals are kept safely.
“As for the public safety, we’re going to work with the police departments and with the state of Maine to make sure we’re in compliance with any of those rules,” he said.
MAINE GOVERNOR PAUL LEPAGE BASICALLY CALLS THE PIT BULL OWNER, DANIELLE JONES, A LYING POS Gov. Paul LePage said in a phone conversation Friday that state officials are looking into the situation.
There’s “no question,” he said, that Jones knows where the dogs are and that she knew the court’s decision before she took them out of the shelter for a “walk.”
“I believe she’s on the lam with the dogs,” LePage said.
He also said he thinks Jones took the dogs out before Humane Society officials became aware of the court’s decision.
“She really was slick,” he said.
Winslow police Chief Shawn O’Leary says he suspects the dogs’ disappearance was a “coordinated effort.” Winslow police, he said, will work with Waterville police on the case with whatever they need.
O’Leary said that the town of Winslow will still have stray animals brought to the Waterville shelter, but if there is a situation involving a dangerous dog that needs to be taken to a shelter and there is a question about it, the animal will be taken to a shelter in Augusta. He said if changes in management and policy at the Waterville shelter do not change by 2018, Winslow will start having all animals taken to a different shelter.
Jones’ lawyers, Tom Page and Bonnie Martinolich, did not return calls Thursday and Friday seeking comment in the case.
Decisions by the court are normally published on the court’s website at 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursday. An employee in the clerk’s office said the decision in the dog case was posted as usual Tuesday and attorneys involved receive an email within minutes after the decision is posted.
The Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office received an email at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday, notifying officials in that office that the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision had been posted upholding the death sentence against the two pit bulls. Jones’ attorneys would have received that at the same time.
Waterville police first learned of the court decision around 12:30 p.m. and tried contacting the animal shelter, but couldn’t reach anyone. Jones, meanwhile, was allowed to walk the two dogs outside the shelter property sometime between 12:30-1 p.m.
Lisa Smith, executive director of Humane Society Waterville Area, did not return phone calls, texts or emails sent to her on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Brown said Thursday that Smith would release a statement later that day, but she never did and Brown said on Friday he doesn’t know why.
Meanwhile, the Morning Sentinel also submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to both Waterville and Winslow police and the municipalities of Waterville and Winslow seeking any written communications with town and city officials and the Humane Society between Tuesday and Friday. Both municipalities reported on Friday they had no such communication with the organization.
Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Friday that the order in the case says Jones has “ownership of the pit bulls but not the right to possession.”
Asked about the process taken in such cases, Maloney said that all criminal cases and investigations proceed the same way — police collect evidence and interview witnesses and if they think a search warrant is needed they apply for one and that is a process the district attorney’s office takes part in. If they find enough evidence to charge someone, they do so.
With some cases, if police are not sure, they will send a case to the District Attorney’s Office for review, which means they ask that office to make the first call, according to Maloney. If a charge is brought forward by police, the district attorney’s office can then read the case and decide to bring that charge or additional charges or no charge at all in the case, according to Maloney.
MAINE -- Local police chiefs say they doubt two dangerous dogs ordered by the court to be euthanized now are running loose in the area after their previous owner, Danielle Jones, told officials they escaped while she was walking them Tuesday afternoon outside an animal shelter.
One of those chiefs said he suspects the dogs’ disappearance was a “coordinated effort.”
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday a court order to euthanize the pit bulls declared dangerous because they had killed a Boston terrier, Fergie Rose, and seriously injured its owner, Sharron Carey, last year in Winslow.
The killer Pit Bulls, named Bentley and Kole, have been held at the Humane Society Waterville Area animal shelter on Webb Road.
Minutes after the Supreme Court decision Tuesday, Jones was walking the dogs near the shelter when, she CLAIMS, the dogs escaped their leashes and ran off into the woods.
Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey, who is investigating the case, said he thinks if two pit bulls were wandering in the city, police would have received calls from the public by now.
“I find that to be very doubtful since we’ve gotten no calls,” Massey said Thursday morning.
Winslow police Chief Shawn O’Leary went so far as to say he believes the dogs were deliberately taken from the shelter’s care because the Supreme Court upheld a decision to euthanize them.
O’Leary also said the incident has alarmed Winslow officials so much that they no longer will take animals to the Waterville shelter until changes are made at the facility.
“I don’t believe that they are loose, that they’re running through the woods,” O’Leary said of the dangerous dogs. “This was a coordinated effort.”
Asked if people found to be harboring the pit bulls would be charged criminally, Massey said it would depend on the circumstances. For instance, police would ask how they got the dogs and whether they knew there was a court order for the dogs to be euthanized when they received the dogs. If they answered “yes” to the questions, police would report that to the district attorney.
As to whether Jones would be charged if she were found to have the dogs, Massey said there is a special state statute that deals with violation of court orders, that this situation is unique, and the district attorney would be involved.
Michael Brown, president of the Humane Society Waterville Area’s board of directors, said Thursday that he is doing everything possible to help police investigate the case.
“At the end of the day, the public’s safety is our main concern,” Brown said. “We’re cooperating with all the people investigating the case in all ways possible, and our biggest concern is a safe resolution.”
Carey, the victim of the dog attack, has filed a civil lawsuit against Jones.
Jones said in a telephone interview Thursday morning from where she works, The Muddy Paw, on Bay Street in Winslow, that she was referring all calls to her lawyers and declined to comment on the missing pit bulls. She said she no longer owns The Muddy Paw.
"There’s a lawsuit being brought against me by Sharron Carey, so I’m not at will to speak to anybody; but my lawyers should be able to talk to you,” said Jones, who on Thursday provided the Morning Sentinel with photos of the two dogs.
Her lawyer, Tom Page, did not return a call seeking comment. Jones’ other attorney, Bonnie Martinolich, also did not return a call.
Lisa Smith, executive director of the Humane Society Waterville Area, did not return calls placed Thursday morning to both her cellphone and the shelter, nor did she respond to an email. Smith also did not respond to a phone message or text sent Wednesday and was not at the shelter late Wednesday afternoon. A shelter official on Monday told the Morning Sentinel that Smith was away and would return Wednesday this week.
Brown said Smith was going to release a statement Thursday about the case, but that never happened.
Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney did not return an email immediately seeking comment about what her office’s role will be in the case, but Massey said once police determine where the dogs are, they will consult with the district attorney’s office.
“We’ll want to seize those dogs because the court ordered them euthanized and get them into a secure facility,” he said.
Massey said shelter officials knew Jones was walking the dogs Tuesday, and she had walked them on previous occasions. He said he did not know if Smith, the shelter’s executive director, was at the shelter that day.
It is not clear whether Jones knew about the Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to uphold the euthanization when she walked the dogs Tuesday. The high court issued its decision upholding the euthanasia order around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, and Jones took the two pit bulls for a walk near the Webb Road animal shelter between 12:30 and 1 p.m.
Massey said police are continuing to try to find the pit bulls.
“Unfortunately, when we contacted their owner, who was the last one to see those dogs, she refused to talk to us,” Massey said. “That has made it difficult to locate the dogs.”
He said that if the dogs were running loose, the concern would be that they might hurt people or other animals.
NEIGHBORS’ VIEW
In the neighborhood around Lucille Avenue where the two pit bulls killed the other dog and injured its owner, some residents on Thursday afternoon said they were concerned, while others said the facts of the case may not be completely clear.
Most, however, said that the recent “escape” of the dogs was probably a calculated effort by their owner, Jones, who lives on Lucille Avenue.
On Aug. 30, 2016, Sharron Carey was walking her Boston terrier, Fergie Rose, down Lucille Avenue near her home when pit bulls Bentley and Kole broke free from their yard at 12 Lucille Ave. The pit bulls attacked Carey and her dog. Fergie Rose died later that day and Carey was seriously injured.
Jones’ home is surrounded by a double fence that is supposed to contain the dogs. However, police previously told the Morning Sentinel that the dogs climbed up the first fence, breaking it, and then broke through the second fence, which wasn’t secured at the bottom.
Chris Rusnov, 65, said she didn’t even know the dogs existed until the attack last year. Rusnov lives on Bolduc Avenue, behind Lucille Avenue, close to Jones’ yard surrounded by the black fence.
Rusnov knows Carey, the woman who was attacked.
“I was pretty outraged at what happened,” she said. “To me, you don’t have dogs that are proven to be that sick. They shouldn’t be anywhere.”
Rusnov, like many others in the neighborhood, often takes walks, and she avoids walking near dogs that seem aggressive.
Another neighbor a few houses down from the site of the attack on Lucille Avenue said the owners should have euthanized the dogs on their own to be responsible, though she didn’t want to give her name.
“When I found out what happened, it made me sick,” she said. “We walked our dog to the corner over there all the time.”
Now the woman won’t walk her dog, which isn’t any bigger than Fergie Rose, near the site of the attack at all.
Gary Michaud, 63, said the two pit bulls never bothered him or his own dog, a large mastiff mix named Ripley.
While the attack was “pretty bad,” he said, it didn’t affect him. He agrees with the law requiring euthanization “to an extent,” he said, but added that in this case “you really don’t know what happened.”
Both Michaud and Rusnov said they don’t believe the dogs, now missing, ran off on their own while on a walk with Jones at the Humane Society Waterville Area.
“She should not get away with doing this,” Rusnov said. “I think she was calculated.”
While the dogs don’t appear to be back in Winslow, Rusnov said their disappearance still concerns her. “That’s just scary. Someone else is in danger now.”
SHELTER CONCERNS
Meanwhile, Winslow officials have notified the shelter that they no longer will take animals to the shelter until changes are made there. O’Leary said from now on, animals will be taken to the shelter in Augusta, which will cost the town additional money and places an extra financial burden on Winslow.
He said it is the shelter’s responsibility to ensure the pit bulls, which are the property of the state, are euthanized per the court’s order.
O’Leary said further that the town of Winslow pays more than $10,000 a year to the animal shelter to take stray animals and deal with situations such as this, and it is the town’s position that the current shelter administration did not follow through on its contract.
“If the shelter leadership and the management does not change by next year, we’ll be going somewhere else, which is going to be a huge loss of funding for them,” O’Leary said. “As a trustee of the town, we don’t ask a lot. This is a unique situation that went through two long court hearings.”
Further, O’Leary said, a lot of police resources are being placed on a case that never should have developed, when they are otherwise dealing with more serious crimes.
O’Leary said Winslow police will help Waterville police with whatever they need to investigate the case. Winslow’s work was completed when the lower court ordered the dogs were dangerous and needed to be put down, he said, and then Jones appealed the case.
Brown, the humane society president, said he did not want to jeopardize the police investigation and referred questions about the incident to Massey.
Brown said he met Wednesday with both Massey and O’Leary about the case “to make sure we’re doing all we can to help them solve this.”
“They are investigating, so I’d be more than happy to speak with you once this is finalized,” Brown said. “I’d rather have it come from them right now.”
After a feline distemper outbreak occurred at the shelter earlier this month, killing more than three dozen cats and kittens, Brown said Humane Society officials were working to review all shelter policies and procedures to ensure best practices are being used there to make sure animals are safe. The shelter closed during the outbreak, on Oct. 1, and reopened this past weekend.
Rest in peace, Fergie
On Thursday morning, he reiterated that stance.
“We’re working internally around protocol and procedure,” Brown said. “Internally, we’re doing the best to make sure all our policies and procedures protect the public and our animals.”
MAINE -- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court released its decision around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday upholding an order to euthanize two pit bulls declared dangerous in court, and minutes later they reportedly got loose.
Their owner, Danielle Jones, had been allowed by the Humane Society Waterville Area to take the two Pit Bulls for a walk between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to police.
DANIELLE JONES' KILLER PIT BULLS
She returned to the shelter around 1 p.m. to tell officials there that the two dogs had gotten loose and run off into the woods.
Yeah, her own dogs just both happened to get loose. And they both happened to run away from her, their owner. She's is a liar - and these people at the shelter are complete idiots for ever having let her do anything other than view the dogs through a padlocked cage. It's their fault these Pit Bulls are missing - and we all know DANIELLE JONES IS HIDING THEM.
The pit bulls, named Bentley and Kole, were ordered euthanized after attacking a woman, Sharron Carey, and her dog, Fergie Rose, who were walking on Aug. 30, 2016, near Jones’ home in Winslow. The dogs killed the 10-month-old Boston terrier and seriously injured Carey.
Fergie Rose, killed by Danielle Jones' maulers
Police initially had trouble contacting Jones, but they found her around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at her home.
Danielle Jones - REFUSING TO SAY A WORD - instead handed the detective a slip of paper that said “direct all questions to my attorney” and refused to speak further, according to Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey.
Winslow police Chief Shawn O’Leary said the incident seems “suspicious, to say the least.”
He’s also disappointed in the animal shelter staff for apparently allowing Jones to take the dogs out.
“I’m completely dumbfounded why the director would allow them to take the dogs off the property,” O’Leary said. “We feel that this is a serious issue, that two dangerous dogs are now out and about and … you know, this is putting a lot of resources into dealing with this situation. … I’m very disappointed in the management.”
Shelter Director Lisa Smith did not return a phone or text message seeking comment and was not at the shelter late Wednesday afternoon.
Jones couldn’t be reached by the Morning Sentinel at her business, The Muddy Paw Grooming Spa on Bay Street in Winslow, on which a sign said it was closed Wednesday.
The Morning Sentinel also attempted to reach Jones on Wednesday afternoon at her residence on Lucille Avenue, but no one answered the door. A number of dogs could be heard barking loudly within the house once the door was knocked on, though, and a woman wearing a black shirt that said “pit bull” later walked through the door and ignored a request for comment.
Police said they don’t know if Jones owned other dogs besides Bentley and Kole.
A judge in Augusta found that Jones had committed two civil violations of keeping a dangerous dog and ordered them both euthanized within 30 days. The order was stayed pending an appeal made by Jones, and the dogs have been held at the Waterville animal shelter at 100 Webb Road.
On Tuesday, the state’s highest court upheld the death ruling in the dogs’ case. In its decision upholding the euthanasia order, the Supreme Court said that “competent evidence in the record” supported the finding that the dogs had injured a person seriously.
District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Tuesday the case was “about community safety. It’s about feeling safe to walk the sidewalks of our neighborhoods.”
Winslow police received news that the euthanization order was upheld about 12:40 p.m. Tuesday, O’Leary said, and contacted the shelter multiple times afterward about paperwork. But it wasn’t until the evening that the shelter told them that the dogs had gotten loose earlier in the day.
O’Leary said he’s disappointed in the shelter management, which didn’t tell police about the disappearance until 6:45 p.m. Tuesday — hours after the dogs were gone.
“That makes me very concerned and upset,” O’Leary said Wednesday.
Sharron Carey’s husband, Bill Carey, said by phone Wednesday evening they can’t comment on the latest incident as they pursue a civil lawsuit.
Sharron Carey has filed a civil lawsuit in Kennebec County Superior Court against Jones and the dogs’ co-owner, Brandon Ross, as well as against Danielle Doyon, of Waterville, owner of the home on Lucille Street.
Carey’s attorney, Steve Blackwell, of Lanham, Blackwell and Baber in Bangor, said the current issue is for law enforcement to handle, but said that Sharron Carey is the victim and didn’t want the dogs to harm anyone else.
“It’s very sad and no one wins here,” Blackwell said, adding that there may be some changes “in the way things are handled” at the shelter.
Maloney, the district attorney, said Wednesday that she’s interested in what the investigation finds, but she declined to comment on whether the latest incident could result in criminal charges.
Asked about issues concerning the shelter and the timeline of the dogs’ disappearances, she said, “Those are the questions that I want to have answered.”
Jones told shelter workers that the dogs broke free while she was walking them and ran into the nearby woods, according to Massey.
The dogs still would have their leashes and harnesses dangling from their collars, Jones reportedly told the animal shelter, but police have yet to hear any reports of loose dogs dragging their leashes.
“I really don’t know where the dogs are,” Massey said. “If they are running loose, I certainly would have some concerns.”
Another high-profile dangerous dog, Dakota the husky, also was held at the Humane Society Waterville Area shelter while the case was resolved.
Ultimately, Dakota was spared a euthanasia order after a court-ordered settlement sent the dog to live at least initially at a veterinary hospital with a boarding kennel and be trained by a canine behavior expert.
IF YOU KNOW WHERE DANIELLE JONES IS HIDING THESE TWO KILLER PIT BULLS, PLEASE CALL 911 AND REPORT IT!
