Pit bull attack puts spotlight on breed

LEBANON - While some cities and towns across the country have outlawed pit bulls such as the two involved in an attack on a Lebanon girl on Saturday, Maine statutes do not allow for any breed specific legislation (BSL), according to Liam Hughes, director of the state’s Animal Welfare Program.

Any municipality in Maine can place tighter restrictions in its animal control codes, but it can’t be done along breed specific lines, he added.

The 12-year-old girl attacked on Sunday was playing with her sister and a friend at 260 River Road where she lives when the attack occurred.

Her mother, Catherine Sargent, said her daughter was doing fine on Sunday and asked that the media respect her privacy.

The dogs are owned by Sargent’s finacee, Rory Downs, who also lives at the house.

The dogs jumped an enclosure in the back yard of Sargent’s home and attacked the girls who were playing nearby. The 12-year-old victim was bitten on the neck, shoulder and arms, while the other two girls received scratches but weren’t bitten.

A man visiting a neighbor intervened in the attack and likely saved the girl’s life, Maine State Trooper David Coflesky said today.

Hughes said the reason Maine doesn’t have any breed specific legislation on its books is because it doesn’t work.

He said the regulatory process is cumbersome, expensive to maintain and you end up with the same number of dog bites and same type of problems.

He said more important than breed is the role a dog plays in a household: whether they are a “family” dog or a “resident” dog.

Family dogs are socialized, have regular visits to a veterinarian and live in the home and interact with family members.

Resident dogs are not under a veterinarian’s care, not socialized or under-socialized, are usually chained up or in a pen outside the house and are on hand as guard dogs or to scare people away.

Hughes also said family dogs are usually licensed; resident dogs rarely are.

The website dogsbite.org, a pro-BSL website according to Hughes, says on its hompage, “In the 8-year period from 2005 to 2012, pit bulls killed 151 Americans and accounted for 60% of the total recorded deaths (251). Combined, pit bulls and rottweilers accounted for 73% of these deaths. 

The website tracks the progress of legislation seeking to ban the dogs and chronicles the deaths of pit bull victims in grisly detail.

The two dogs involved in Saturday’s attack, Jager and Meister, named after a German liqueur, were both seven months old and had never exhibited aggressive behavior before, the family said. The pair were removed from the house after the attack and taken to the Kennebunk Animal Shelter where they will be quarantined since their rabies shots were not up to date.

Maine State Police consulted on Monday with the York County District Attorney’s Office on whether charges might be filed, but no word had been released yet today on the outcome of the meeting.