AUGUSTA — A Winslow woman testified Monday that she believed two pit bulls would turn on her next after they finished tearing her dog apart during an August attack.
Sharron E. Carey described her reactions and the injuries she received August 30 as she struggled to protect her 10-month-old Fergie Rose, a Boston terrier, just after noon on Lucille Street in Winslow.
The testimony came on the first day of the trial of Danielle Jones of Winslow, who faces two civil violations that charge her with keeping a dangerous dog.
Judge Eric Walker is presiding at the non-jury trial which picks up again Tuesday at the Capital Judicial Center.
The state, represented by Assistant District Attorney Tracy DeVoll, wants Walker to order the two dogs euthanized.
“My goal is to put the dogs down so it never happens again,” she said.
Attorney Charles T. Ferris, representing Jones, asked the judge to consider something short of euthanization for the animals. Ferris also represents Brandon Ross, co-owner of the dogs, who faces the same charges, but the trials were separated. Both he and Jones have denied the violations.
DeVoll played both an audio recording of the 911 call from a neighbor, Laura Higgins, who witnessed the attack, as well as video clips from two surveillance cameras outside Jones’ home.
In the 911 recording, women’s voices exclaim, “My dog is dead,” and “O my God, this is awful” as the dispatcher sought to get an address and a clearer picture of what was happening.
Higgins testified Monday that the two pit bulls each had part of the smaller dog and were tugging and pulling on it.
“The dog was lifeless,” she said. “It was like a rag.”
The video clips, played while Carey testified, showed two black dogs streaking across the grassy front lawn of Jones’ 12 Lucille St. home where Carey and her dog were passing and then other portions of the action.
“They ran up, and they tore her out of my arms and knocked me down,” Carey said.
She said a black and white dog attempted to join in, but a brown dog appeared and distracted that one.
Carey said she was bitten on both the right wrist and on her back.
“They had Fergie on the ground, and she was crying,” she said. “There was nothing I could do. I was kicking them and screaming, and I was screaming for help and no one came. They were just killing my dog, and there was blood everywhere.”
Another neighbor, James K. Allen, testified he ran over, first using the book he was reading and later grabbing a small branch to try to get the dogs away from Carey.
Allen said he was concerned with protecting Carey, who was kneeling on the ground and still holding the leash to her dog’s harness.
“The three dogs were within 5 inches of her face and her dog was right underneath,” Allen testified.
Dr. Karen Curtis, of the Garland Road Small Animal Hospital, testified that Fergie Rose died about 10 minutes after being brought to her veterinary practice.
The next day Officer Christopher Martinez, Winslow’s animal control officer, retrieved the dog’s body and brought it to Dr. Abby Arena, veterinarian at New England Animal Hospital in Waterville for a necropsy — an animal autopsy.
Arena testified while pointing to various photos from the necropsy itself, which were shown on monitors in the courtroom.
“The cause of death was the hole in the thorax that caused a collapsed lung and lacerations of lung that caused bleeding into the thoracic cavity,” she said.
Arena also said it did not appear that Fergie Rose was in heat at the time of the incident.
When the video of the attack was shown to her in the courtroom, she watched the small dog on the leash lunge toward the house and said that the animal “appears to be vocalizing.”
Arena also said she had seen Jones’ two dogs at the Waterville Humane Society where they were first quarantined and later confined by a judge’s order, but had not examined or treated them.
She said that it would be appropriate to have their behavior assessed by an animal behaviorist or veterinarian certified in that area.
Martinez took the two pit bulls, 3-year-old Kole and Bentley — each with blood on their muzzles — from their owners for quarantine and later filed paperwork to have the animals confined until a court could decide their fate. He testified Monday that Jones had been charged with having an unlicensed dog following an incident that occurred when she lived on Halifax Street.
“The dogs got out, went to another residence and attacked another dog,” Martinez said. He testified that he always does a history check.
“We want to make sure that these dogs, any dangerous dog incident, is noted for public safety,” Martinez said. “We don’t want to have a second or third incident when we talk about dangerous dogs.”
Keeping a dangerous dog is punishable by a fine of between $250 and $1,000. The dogs can also be destroyed under court order or kept in a secure area or muzzled.
Sondra Nantes, a physician’s assistant at Inland Hospital in Waterville, testified Carey was distraught and tearful when she came in by ambulance.
“She said, ‘They ripped her from my arms and she kept calling it ‘her baby,'” Nantes said, but the emergency room staff knew it had been a dog.
Nantes treated Carey for puncture wounds to the left and right hands as well as for abrasions on her back.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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