Pit Bull attacks 76 year old woman

[graywarrior]

By David Liscio / The Daily Item

LYNN - A Lynn great-grandmother seriously mauled by her extended family's pit bull Wednesday remains under medical watch while the city's animal control officers search for the owner in hopes of learning whether the dog has been vaccinated against rabies.

Margaret Murphy, 76, of Eastern Avenue, drove her car to 26 Mall St. shortly after 3 p.m. to visit her 10-year-old great grandson, Antonio, who lives with his grandmother, Carmen Santana Carrisquillo, and mother Isabelle Santana in apartment No. 10.

She knocked repeatedly but nobody answered. The door was ajar. When she opened it, the brown pit bull terrier lunged at her throat, snapping its powerful jaws until her skin was lacerated from head to toe.

"The pit bull just knocked me down in the hall and proceeded to bite me. I was shaking like a leaf. I knew I would die unless they got the dog off me," Murphy said Thursday, bandaged and recuperating in her apartment.

"I don't even know who pulled the dog off me. I was bleeding pretty bad. The skin was hanging off my leg."

Police were called and an ambulance took Murphy to Union Hospital where she received multiple stitches on her face, right arm and leg. Murphy said the dog is owned by Carrisquillo's son, Andre Carrisquillo, 23, who was in the apartment at the time but lives elsewhere in Lynn.

"Andre owns the dog, but his mother isn't saying because she wants to protect him," said Murphy, noting that Antonio's father, Joseph Anderson, is serving time at Middleton Jail for hijacking cars, so the children often go unsupervised at the Mall Street apartment.

Michael Kairevich, the assistant animal control officer, snared the pit bull and brought it to the kennels at North Shore Animal Hospital on Neptune Boulevard.

"The people helped me get the dog to the truck, but once there it was fighting the whole time," he said. "I had a heck of a time getting it to the kennel where it has been quarantined."
Kairevich said the male pit bull was not neutered and had no documentation indicating its ownership or history of veterinary care. "We tried to find out who really owns the dog but everybody involved has disappeared," he said. "The phone numbers we were given were no good so we've left messages at the addresses on Mall and Franklin streets. It's important that we find out if this dog had its rabies shot."

If that vital information cannot be obtained by Friday, Kairevich said he would ask Kevin Farnsworth, the city's primary animal control officer, to petition the mayor's office for permission to euthanize the dog so that an autopsy can determine if it's rabid.

"I'd certainly like to know," said Murphy. "I thought I was done for. Now I'm just waiting and worrying. I'd like to live a few more years."

Police Lt. William Sharpe said officers responding to the scene were told that Andre Carrasquillo was visiting the apartment and brought along the dog when Murphy showed up at the door and entered without knocking.

[zonkers]

1. She's lucky to escape.

[graywarrior]

2. Wicked lucky.

[LiberalFighter]

3. The mother of the son that owns the dog needs to be locked up

if she won't provide the location.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Yeah, but this is a case where the woman walked inside someone's home.

[Scout]

7. "She knocked repeatedly but nobody answered. The door was ajar.

When she opened it, the brown pit bull terrier lunged at her throat, snapping its powerful jaws until her skin was lacerated from head to toe."

[flvegan]

4. I'm just going to sit and here and watch.

...and wait.

:popcorn:

[graywarrior]

6. Just don't go to Lynn to do that

You wouldn't last 2 minutes.

[flvegan]

9. I wouldn't enter a house like that.

While I feel for the woman, as well as the family and the dog, the dog was doing his job. I pity anyone that comes through my door unannounced. Or even worse, goes into my backyard when it's full on doggie play time.

Idiot owner needs to neuter the boy, though.

[safeinOhio]

11. If the owner doesn't come up with vaccination papers

with in a day or two, don't worry about cutting its nuts off. The standard procedure is to cut off the head and send it to a lab for a brain biopsy. They give you a tag for the animal to wear showing it has the shots. No tag, no vet papers and it's off with the head.

[flvegan]

12. I'm well aware of the process.

I'm hoping for a good outcome for the dog.

[Nicole]

15. The owner hasn't come forward,

The dog was put down today.

I feel sorry for the old lady but that was a dumb move on her part. The owner of the dog should be ashamed.


http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/pit-bull-attacks-lynn-great-grandmother-20100319

[Coventina]

16. Yes, indeed. The owner was clearly irresponsible.

Having a dog without tags, or coming forward to claim ownership (and possibly sparing the dog's life) was totally irresponsible.

It's sad that the pets of bad humans almost always suffer more than their worthless owners.

[Coventina]

13. I suppose because it's a little old lady, she gets a pass for entering

without invitation.

:shrug:

Once again, it seems like humans expect dogs to behave like humans, instead of dogs.

on edit: As you've said before, "I predict greatness for this thread."

[KittyWampus]

18. It was a family member.

[Coventina]

26. Did the dog know that? If she wasn't a member of the pack, and

no other members of the pack were there to validate her presence, she was an intruder on the pack's territory and therefore a threat.

[graywarrior]

14. Having grown up in Lynn, I tend to agree with you.

[KittyWampus]

19. Even your great grandmother? "I pity anyone that comes through my door unannounced"

[LeftyMom]

20. Having been "announced", let me explain.

There are, at any given time, a dozen or so dogs in said house. All of them come from prior abuse and neglect situations, and some of them have some behavior issues that make them unadoptable.

You come in, they get told who you are and that you belong (the important thing isn't the words, it's a reassuring voice from a human they've come to trust,) they line up in their little pecking order and take turns smelling you, it's not a big deal, life goes on. But if somebody came in unannounced (which would mean they were a burglar or something, because nobody else does, because everybody who belongs knows about the dog situation,) because of prior abuse they would probably react fearfully. And a scared dog is more dangerous than an angry one, in a lot of ways.

[dana_b]

23. perfecty sensible

and people who work with and have dogs that have been abused are amazing!! :)

[KittyWampus]

24. A DOZEN?! That sounds like a huge commitment. That's a lovely way to volunteer.

I bet you have a sign out front saying "Dogs"?

I knew someone that took in English Setters. They weren't really abused as much as abandoned on the edge of the woods after hunting season or after the owner decided the dog sucked at hunting.

[LeftyMom]

25. Not me, I live on the other end of the country.

And I rescue cats, who are much easier to deal with in just about every way. flvegan is a freakin' saint to do what he does.

[rcrush]

21. Anyone who doesn't live at my house better not walk in.

I don't care if its Grandma or Jesus.

[jtuck004]

8. "Lacerated from head to toe"? Is the picture of someone else?

An athletic dog went for her throat? Must have very bad aim. She is showing a laceration and bruising on her arm. Don't see any on the other, might be some bruising on her face from this but no lacerations visible. And just who identified it as a "pit bull"? It may well have been just a large scary mixed breed (who besides the reporter had any input into the ID?), but throwing that in the headline, especially given the inflated story, makes it look more like tabloid journalism with an axe to grind. Or maybe just desperate to get in print.

Why do people have to resort to hyperbole to make a story sound worse than it is? Are they trying to emulate Republican House Members?

I do feel for the woman, and the owners of the dog that hurt her need to learn how to care for their dog and others, but resorting to sensationalism and outright lying simply harms their credibility.

[CBR]

10. Well, if someone came into my home, I would hope my dog

would react. Unfortunately, he would probably do the boxer wiggle and jump around for attention.

[LeftyMom]

17. Ah, boxers.

He might lick the intruder to death.

[kiva]

22. From this article it appears that the dog didn't live there,

but that its owner was visiting and brought the dog (last sentence posted); it also says that the children "often go unsupervised." Could be that grandma, assuming that kids were there but not answering the door (and not knowing that there was a dog in the house) was concerned and went inside.