Man mauled by dog gets 100 stitches in his face

Animal now on dangerous dog list

Friday, May 1, 2009

"He had a multitude of stitches on his face," more than 100, said Adele Maguire, the man's mother. The dog ripped out pieces of his upper and lower lip, she said.

Employed by Griffith Oil, Rob Maguire of Broomes Island said when a customer opened his Dunkirk home's front door after Maguire knocked to hand over the receipt, "the dog just leaped up and got me on the left side of my face.

"I had no time to turn my head," he said. Maguire said the dog, which was at first thought to be a pit bull, bit out pieces of his upper and lower lip when it bit his face.

"It took me a minute to realize I had been bitten. Then I realized I was bleeding. I was in shock. "

Maguire said he had been to the house to deliver heating oil several times in the past, but he had never seen a dog.

The dog, registered as an American Staffordshire terrier, weighs 56 pounds. The American Staffordshire terrier resembles what is considered its cousin, the American pit bull terrier.

The dog that attacked Maguire was added to the county's dangerous dog list per the recommendation of the Animal Control Officer who responded to the scene, according to the Calvert County Sheriff's Office.

"It was largely my fault. I opened the door and the dog pushed out," said Barry Harbison, the father of the owner of the dog. The owner was at work at the time of the incident. The dog, which normally is kept in a kennel, had never done anything like this before, Harbison said, adding "I was extremely surprised."

The 2 �-year-old dog was never trained to attack, he said. "I guess it's their nature."

Brandon Harbison, who said he has known the dog since it was born, said, "We don't know what caused it."

The dog has never shown any aggression toward any human beings, he said. The dog, Honey, is trained to sit and stay and has shown just playfulness, he added.

"The only thing she barks at is a squirrel," Brandon Harbison said. "When I got the call I came rushing home," he said, adding that it was totally unexpected.

Dunkirk Volunteer Fire Department members responded to the Apple Greene neighborhood and drove Maguire to the hospital after the attack, where he eventually went into surgery.

The attack occurred around noon on April 9 and Maguire said he went into surgery about 5:30 p.m. and it took two-and-a-half hours to stitch up his face.

"It hurts to eat cause I can't open my mouth all the way," he said last week.

Originally, the animal control officers who interviewed Maguire at the hospital wrote up that he had provoked the dog, said Adele Maguire.

"They [animal control] said Robbie provoked the attack because [the owners] said he opened the door, which he didn't," she said. "We got real upset about that."

Rob Maguire said he did not provoke the dog, he just knocked on the door to deliver the receipt and when a man opened the door the dog leaped up on him.

The Maguires contacted Calvert County State's Attorney Laura Martin about the dog attack the next day, and Maguire said officials met the following Monday, April 13, to discuss the incident.

Martin said she got together with animal control officers to discuss the definition of a "provoked dog" after she was contacted by the Maguires.

"It was determined not to be provocation," Martin said.

The dog was then assessed as a dangerous dog, as part of the Calvert County Animal Control Ordinances and the dog's owner signed the dangerous animal paperwork and has 30 days to comply or turn the dog over, Jeanine Howard, the sheriff's office public information officer, wrote in an e-mail.

Brandon Harbison said he does not know whether he will appeal the county's decision to list his dog as dangerous. "The first thing we'll do is make sure we abide by the rules," he said.

According to Calvert County Animal Control Ordinance, the dog must be muzzled and restrained on a leash not exceeding 3 feet. The owner must have a microchip inserted into the animal, and provide written evidence of a $100,000 public liability insurance policy that has to cover bodily injury to a person or people and the debts from damage to property that the dog might cause.

A perimeter fence must be installed on the property and a sign must be displayed showing that there's a dangerous dog on the property. Other specifications in regards to a dangerous dog are listed on the county's Web site.

According to the American Kennel Club's Web site, Prince George's County first enacted a ban on pit bulls in 1996 after a string of dog attacks in the area. County officials define pit bulls as American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and American Pit Bull Terriers and any dog with the same characteristics as these breeds.

Rob Maguire said he was told by a nurse at the hospital that a woman came to the hospital about a week earlier to be stitched up from worse dog bites caused by her own pit bull.

Maguire said he wants to make people aware that there are dogs in the county that could attack them.

"Be cautious," he said. Last month an Edgewater family was attacked by a stray pit bull that ran in the family's front door when the owner opened the door and the dog attacked him, his wife and son, according to an ABC newscast. And in District Heights, a 4-year-old boy was critically injured when he was attacked by his family's pit bull on March 31, as reported by the Baltimore Sun.

Pit bulls are currently banned in Prince George's County and North Beach.

charvat@somdnews.com