LEBANON, Maine — A 12-year-old girl suffered more than a dozen bites when she was attacked Friday afternoon by her family’s two pit bulls named Jager and Meister, according to the Maine State Police. The 7-month-old dogs, who were taken to a Kennebunk animal shelter, were named for the German liqueur, Stephen McCausland said in a press release issued Sunday morning. The case will be turned over to the York County district attorney’s office to determine if charges will be filed. The girl, who was bitten on her legs and shoulder, was taken to Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NH., the press release said. Her younger sister and another girl suffered cuts and bruises, but were not bitten. The girls climbed onto a pickup truck in the yard to escape the animals. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
Tragedy struck in north Bryan County on Wednesday afternoon when a toddler was mauled and killed by seven dogs, all pit bulls or pit bull mixes, in her backyard off Elm Road. According to Bryan County Deputy Sheriff James Beatty, a 6:24 p.m. call to 911 reported the girl’s grandmother woke up, looked out the back window, saw it happening, and along with others rushed outside to pull the dogs off the child, but it was too late. “When we got here and spoke to EMS, they told us that when they got here, she was already cold. There was nothing they could do,” Beatty said. Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith said the coldness of the body indicated to him the child had to have been dead for a while. How the girl, who would have been 2 years old in June, got into the backyard with the dogs was not immediately known. (read more at Savannah Now)
TOWN OF WALWORTH, Wis. — A toddler attacked by two pit bulls Wednesday afternoon in Walworth County has died. Walworth County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Scott McClory said a 911 call was received at 12:46 p.m. stating that a woman and a 14-month-old boy were being attacked by two dogs on North Lakeshore Drive in the Town of Walworth. McClory said two pit bulls were removed from the property and were euthanized by a local veterinarian. The boy was taken by ambulance to Mercy-Walworth Medical Center, and then taken to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin by Flight For Life, where he died about 3:30 p.m., according to the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department. McClory said the boy suffered critical injuries. The woman said the dogs were her own. There is no word on her injuries. (read more at WISN)
HEMET (CBSLA.com) — Authorities say a 91-year-old woman who was found dead in her motel room was apparently mauled to death by her two pit bulls. Elsie Grace was found dead in her room at a Motel 6, in the 3900 block of Florida Avenue, in Hemet Friday morning. “The victim had a great deal of trauma to her body,” Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart said. “(At) this time, it appears to be a horrific accident.” (read more at CBS Los Angeles)
SANFORD – Students from Sanford High School are teaming up with the Animal Welfare Society for a pit-bull advocacy event Sunday. Members of the school’s Jobs for Maine Graduates Club will be supporting the animal shelter’s mobile adoption team at Pet Life on Main Street in Sanford from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. The event serves as a way for Sanford students and the shelter to work together to raise awareness about pit bull terriers and the common, negative stereotypes that surround the breed. But it is also a way for students to become directly involved in community outreach programs. Jobs for Maine Graduates is a nonprofit organization in junior high and high schools throughout the state. Sanford has both programs, with the high school classes focusing on leadership development, social awareness and civic engagement. Melissa Small, a Jobs for Maine Graduates specialist, teaches all three programs at Sanford High. Her class is taken as an elective, and tries to instill simple employability skills such as dressing for an interview and making phone calls to potential employers. (read more at Weekly Observer)
LIVERMORE FALLS, Maine — A 1-year-old boy and his mother face extensive surgery after being attacked by the family dog on Saturday. The baby remained hospitalized Sunday evening. Livermore Falls police officer Joe Sage was called to a Route 17 home for a reported dog bite incident Saturday morning. When he arrived, he found the child with severe facial injuries and bleeding heavily. The mother was also badly injured by the dog, a pit bull-wolf hybrid mix. Both were taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington by NorthStar EMS. According to police, the dog had been locked in a room and quarantined the previous day by the town’s animal control officer for undisclosed reasons. Apparently the doorway of the room in which the dog had been barricaded was low enough for the child to peer over, according to an email sent by Livermore Falls police Lt. Thomas Gould. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
There are certain things in the life of a young, theatrically inclined girl that are landmarks. That first-ever part in a play or musical. That first speaking role. The first song ever sung on stage. The first — gasp! — stage kiss. But there’s one role so juicy, so big, so iconic that there’s an elite force of preteen girls that have been welcomed into its club. That’s the role of Annie, in “Annie.” In musical theater, that’s considered one of the biggest fish for a young female performer. Penobscot Theatre Company’s holiday production of the beloved 1970s musical about the spunky Depression-era orphan has cast two local Annies — 12-year-old Kate Fogg of Holden and 11-year-old Lana Sabbagh of Brewer. Next week, they’ll don curly red wigs and red dresses and alternate performances of the title character, when the show opens in previews on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at the Bangor Opera House. (read more, TOMORROW, at the Bangor Daily News)
FALMOUTH — A Falmouth woman is trying to identify a dog so she can spare her 5-year-old daughter a series of rabies shots. Gia Davis said her daughter was walking with a care-giver on one of Portland’s trails near the Ocean Avenue dog park about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday when a dog attacked her. The care-giver and witnesses told Davis that the girl, who was already afraid of dogs, curled up in a fetal position and the dog bit her in the back of the neck and broke the skin, Davis said. The dog retreated after a woman called for it. “We were probably pretty lucky,” Davis said. “This dog had her by the back of the neck.” Now, Davis wants to make sure the dog has had a rabies shot, so that her daughter doesn’t have to get a series of five shots, including two at the site of the puncture. “I have to vaccinate her. It’s most likely not needed, but I don’t know 100 percent and I have to make a pretty quick call,” Davis said. She must hear by Friday night or she will have to start the treatment, she said. (read more at Kennebec Journal)
PORTLAND, Maine — A jury will decide if a Dexter woman bitten by the part pit bull she was dog-sitting is entitled to damages or not. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday reversed a judge’s ruling that granted summary judgment to the owners of Beans. Nearly four years ago, Alisa Morgan agreed to care for the dog owned by Robert and Ann Marquis of Garland while the couple attended their son’s graduation from basic training, according to the court’s unanimous opinion penned by Justice Andrew Mead. On Oct. 15, 2008, Morgan went to care for Beans at the Marquis’ home and entered their dark kitchen. “She saw Beans sitting off to the side; he was not acting aggressively,” Mead wrote. “Morgan turned on the kitchen light over the stove, spoke to Beans and reached down to pet him. The dog lurched up, bit her face, and then retreated.” Morgan in October 2010 sued the Marquises, who passed the complaint on to the company that issued their homeowners’ insurance. She claimed that Beans caused multiple lacerations on her left face, nose, right cheek and upper neck which caused disfigurement, pain and suffering and required surgery. Morgan sought an unspecified amount of damages. (read more at BangorDailyNews while I look for a rock)
WEST BATH, Maine — A 5-year-old girl from West Bath was bitten by two family boxer dogs Saturday after she’d been playing with the dogs. Sagadahoc County Sheriff ’s Department was notified of the incident at 12:57 p.m., which occurred on Birch Point Road, according to Chief Deputy Brett Strout. Strout said the little girl was on the neighboring property belonging to family and was playing with the two boxers when she reportedly made a sudden movement that startled the dogs. Strout said that according to the report, the dogs “jumped her from behind.” Strout said the girl’s grandfather took her to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick after she was bitten. (read more at Bangor Daily News while I look for a rock)
LEBANON, Maine — A 12-year-old girl suffered more than a dozen bites when she was attacked Friday afternoon by her family’s two pit bulls named Jager and Meister, according to the Maine State Police. The 7-month-old dogs, who were taken to a Kennebunk animal shelter, were named for the German liqueur, Stephen McCausland said in a press release issued Sunday morning. The case will be turned over to the York County district attorney’s office to determine if charges will be filed. The girl, who was bitten on her legs and shoulder, was taken to Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NH., the press release said. Her younger sister and another girl suffered cuts and bruises, but were not bitten. The girls climbed onto a pickup truck in the yard to escape the animals. (read more at Bangor Daily News)
