A 13-year-old St. Mary’s boy received stitches at a hospital Sunday after he suffered bite wounds from four pit bulls that got out of their owner’s fenced-in yard, county authorities reported this week, and another teenager also was injured in the attack that left the pets in custody at a shelter in Hughesville.

An animal control officer said this week that the ongoing investigation hasn’t determined why the gate opened along the 6-foot wooden fence at the Great Mills residence, while the owner of the 2-year-old female dog and her three 8-month-old puppies was away. No charges have been filed as the county agency continues its review of the matter.

The dogs “were running around the townhouses” at the St. George’s Hundred neighborhood, animal warden John Miedzinski said, and the two teenagers went to the owner’s home on St. Leonard’s Circle to let him know the dogs were out. No one answered the door, and the teenagers were going back to the older one’s home at about 1 p.m. Sunday when they were attacked.

The 18-year-old teenager reported that he was attacked by the mother dog and one of the puppies, leaving him with a single bite wound to his buttocks, the animal warden said. The 13-year-old boy reported that he was attacked by all four dogs, and he was taken to MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, where he was treated and released.

On Monday, Anthony Charles Maisano was home in Piney Point, where the eighth-grader at Spring Ridge Middle School was missing classes while recovering from his wounds. His mother said he has seven stitches in the top of his left hand because of one of the dogs.

“It bit right through his hand,” Keli Lynn Tincoff said. “You can’t see his knuckles because his hand is so swelled up.” She said her son was bitten on both arms and legs, leaving him with puncture wounds and bruising.

“He’s still in a lot of pain,” she said. “I’m just grateful it didn’t get his neck or his face. If it had been a littler child, it would have been a lot worse.”

Miedzinski said the four dogs currently are being held in the shelter in a routine 10-day quarantine status to determine if they have rabies.

“None of the dogs have rabies shots,” the animal warden said.

Earlier this month, the Maryland Court of Appeals stood by its earlier ruling that purebred pit bulls are inherently dangerous dogs, from a case where a landlord was found financially liable for an attack by a tenant’s dog, but the court removed cross-bred and mixed-breed pit bulls from the ruling. Maryland legislators were unable to agree this month on legislation that they pursued during a special session in an attempt to halt the original ruling’s effect.

jwharton@somdnews.com

Staff writers Kate S. Alexander and Margie Hyslop contributed to this report.