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Pit bull attacks; shot by police
Home News Tribune Online 05/17/06
By RICHARD KHAVKINE
STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
WOODBRIDGE — Police shot a pit bull, which was on the loose until about 9 p.m. yesterday, after it and another pit bull attacked three youths and a 34-year-old man in Avenel yesterday afternoon.
The man, who tried to avert further attacks after seeing the injured youths, was bitten "pretty severely" on his arms, fingers, legs and feet and taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison, police said. The three Avenel youths, ages 12, 13 and 15, sustained minor bites and were treated at local hospitals and released.
The attacks took place shortly after 3 p.m. on Rahway Avenue, near the intersection of Meinzer Street across from a strip mall there, police said.
The 9-month-old male dog, shot twice by an officer with a .45-caliber gun, took off wounded, police said. The dog returned home around 9 p.m., and authorities took it to the hospital, police said. The extent of the dog's injuries were not known last night.
Animal control officers corralled the second pit bull, a 6-month-old female, shortly after the attacks when its owner was able to call it back in the home's Rahway Avenue yard.
"Everybody was screaming. (The male dog) just started running in a circle. There was no way I could control him at that point. It was out of control," said Annette Capozzi, who said the pit bulls belong to her son and his girlfriend.
Lt. Donald Protz said police had called off the search at dusk after determining the older dog wound up in a wooded area nearby.
"It's too dark, it's swampy, it's wet," Protz said last night. "It becomes too dangerous if you run across the dog."
Protz, though, said hunters had advised the police department that since the dog had not left a blood trail, it would likely die of internal bleeding if it hadn't already succumbed.
The injured man, from Edison, was driving by with his family when he witnessed the attack. He stopped and the three youths sought refuge in the man's car as he tried to fend off further harm, Protz said.
Capozzi said that while she was able to get the younger dog inside the yard, the commotion and the gun blasts scared off the male.
Capozzi, who was home all day, did not know how the dogs got out of the yard, which is enclosed by 6-foot-tall fences. "The gates were shut, the gates were secured," she said.
Since the family takes care to secure the dogs, there was "a very strong possibility" the dogs were let out by a passer-by, possibly one or more of the several students who walk through the neighborhood when school lets out, she said.
"Kids go by every day. The dogs bark," Capozzi said, adding that the students sometimes bait the dogs to create a commotion.
"It's like taunting," she said. "It's kid stuff. I can always tell when the kids come home from school."
Pit bull attacks; shot by police
Home News Tribune Online 05/17/06
By RICHARD KHAVKINE
STAFF WRITER
[email protected]
WOODBRIDGE — Police shot a pit bull, which was on the loose until about 9 p.m. yesterday, after it and another pit bull attacked three youths and a 34-year-old man in Avenel yesterday afternoon.
The man, who tried to avert further attacks after seeing the injured youths, was bitten "pretty severely" on his arms, fingers, legs and feet and taken to JFK Medical Center in Edison, police said. The three Avenel youths, ages 12, 13 and 15, sustained minor bites and were treated at local hospitals and released.
The attacks took place shortly after 3 p.m. on Rahway Avenue, near the intersection of Meinzer Street across from a strip mall there, police said.
The 9-month-old male dog, shot twice by an officer with a .45-caliber gun, took off wounded, police said. The dog returned home around 9 p.m., and authorities took it to the hospital, police said. The extent of the dog's injuries were not known last night.
Animal control officers corralled the second pit bull, a 6-month-old female, shortly after the attacks when its owner was able to call it back in the home's Rahway Avenue yard.
"Everybody was screaming. (The male dog) just started running in a circle. There was no way I could control him at that point. It was out of control," said Annette Capozzi, who said the pit bulls belong to her son and his girlfriend.
Lt. Donald Protz said police had called off the search at dusk after determining the older dog wound up in a wooded area nearby.
"It's too dark, it's swampy, it's wet," Protz said last night. "It becomes too dangerous if you run across the dog."
Protz, though, said hunters had advised the police department that since the dog had not left a blood trail, it would likely die of internal bleeding if it hadn't already succumbed.
The injured man, from Edison, was driving by with his family when he witnessed the attack. He stopped and the three youths sought refuge in the man's car as he tried to fend off further harm, Protz said.
Capozzi said that while she was able to get the younger dog inside the yard, the commotion and the gun blasts scared off the male.
Capozzi, who was home all day, did not know how the dogs got out of the yard, which is enclosed by 6-foot-tall fences. "The gates were shut, the gates were secured," she said.
Since the family takes care to secure the dogs, there was "a very strong possibility" the dogs were let out by a passer-by, possibly one or more of the several students who walk through the neighborhood when school lets out, she said.
"Kids go by every day. The dogs bark," Capozzi said, adding that the students sometimes bait the dogs to create a commotion.
"It's like taunting," she said. "It's kid stuff. I can always tell when the kids come home from school."
