The March dog attack facts from the Poulsbo Police

Published 10:11 am Saturday, April 26, 2008

POULSBO — As readers have been discussing a dog attack that occurred last March on our Editorial Page, different points about the incident have been addressed by readers.

Here are the facts as documented in the Poulsbo Police Department reports:

The morning of March 10, a Poulsbo woman had been working in her garden when her neighbor’s Great Dane got loose from its yard and wandered over to hers. As the woman had been instructed by that neighbor on how to handle the dogs if they got out of their gated yard, she went into her house and returned with a box of dog biscuits, said Sgt. Howard Leeming.

The Great Dane had proceeded to another neighbor’s yard, and she called the canine and threw several dog biscuits into the its yard.

At that point, Leeming said, the neighbor’s other dog — a boxer pit bull mix — charged at the woman from the yard, bit her and dragged her through the gate.

Police wrote after arriving at the scene that neighbors heard the woman screaming, and went to her aid with a fireplace shovel. Her boot was also found outside the gate by one of the neighbors and was placed in her garage, Leeming said. The neighbors were able to get the woman away from the dog and back out onto the sidewalk.

The owner of the dogs maintained her, and their, innocence throughout the report and hearings, saying the boxer pit bull mix had gone through extensive training and the neighbor had entered her yard. Leeming said warning signs had been posted at the gate stating the dogs would charge anyone entering the gated area. There had been other incidents with other neighbors in the past with regard to the dogs.

He said police were able to locate the professional trainer who had worked with the dog, and she said the dog had received 10 lessons, and throughout all of them had acted aggressively toward other dogs and humans and was overly protective of the Great Dane. She also said the dog had been a rescued animal at 5 months old, and before that had been abused and imprinted aggression. She wrote a recommendation to the owner the dog be euthanized because it was a dangerous animal.

Leeming said this was instrumental in the dog owner pleading guilty to the charges against her. The victim was an employee of the city of Poulsbo, but has not returned to her job since the incident as she is still recovering.