BELFAST, Maine — After his German shepherd attacked a mother and child last week, a local man has been issued a civil violation for keeping a dangerous dog.
Phillip Knox, 40, usually keeps his dog chained to the kitchen floor of his Harvey Road residence, according to a report from the Belfast Police Department and the city’s animal control officer.
But last Friday, the animal darted out the door when Knox’s teenage son went outside. Although the teen immediately tried to grab the dog, the animal heard children playing up a hill and ran toward the noise. The dog bit a 9-year-old girl on the leg, according to the police report. When the child’s mother went to help and to try to get the dog away from the girl, she was bitten on her wrist and suffered puncture wounds.
The child’s injuries required stitches, according to police.
The teen pulled the dog off the victims as soon as he could, said Officer Wendell Ward.
“He was terribly upset that this happened,” he said Friday.
The dog is in quarantine because its rabies shot was a month late.
“Whether or not the dog will be destroyed hasn’t been determined yet,” Ward said.
He keeps his dog chained to the kitchen floor?????
?????
Usually keeps the dog chained to the kitchen floor?? Are you kidding me?
I say kill the dog before it kills some child!
No wonder the dog hates people. Normal dogs like people unless they are abused.
Not exactly true. I got my puppy at 3 months old. It wasn’t abused at all. As soon as we went into the kennel she growled. Some dog’s just like their comfort zone and do not like strangers in it.
If the puppy was three months old how do you know it wasn’t abused (or not socialized) which seems to be more likely? You say she was in a kennel. Is that where she lived from the time she was born? That is abuse. How would you like to be born in jail and live your life there without someone to love you?
Young puppies, if socialized and not abused do not generally behave in a truly agressive manner. They may as they get older develop agressive tendencies, but not normally at such a young age.
The poor dog in this story has obviously been abused; chained to the kitchen floor. How awful. Now not only will the poor dog suffer from the ignorance of his owner but two people have been injured. Why are people so damn stupid?
Dude…it’s WALDO COUNTY.
What does that mean?
That’s what i said-the poor dog was running away from captivity- …
This is tragic, I’m sure the dog will have to be put down.
I hope the mother and child recover well.
It is tragic, as I am sure keeping your dog chained to the kitchen floor has made the poor thing ugly. Can’t understand why some people even have dogs if they are just going to chain them up all the time, especially to the kitchen floor :(
That’s a funny way to spell p-i-t-b-u-l-l.
Haha.
But really, unfortunate for the dog. Poor pet owners. And of course, sucks to be bit.
I knew a man who stepped on his dog’s toes to make him mind. [not a pit bull] The dog went right thru the kitchen window to get at the mailman. Such cruelty, what can you expect? Chained to the kitchen floor, no wonder the dog went wild when loose.
Very cruel but what does the dog’s breed have to do with the owner’s treatment of it?
If this had been a coyote instead of a dog, it would have been world news of alarming significance to the deer hunting folks with coyote phobia.
We now you hate hunting,hunters,trappers…Stick to the topic….
As a lifetime hunter, trapper, fur buyer, etc., I’m an avid supporter of fair chase hunting – and you know that. And because YOU have coyote phobia and kill for thrill and brag is the reason you feel you must attack me personally. Time you grew up.
I don’t hunt…
just like people its all how you raise them shepards are protective towards their own family however..but who keeps a dog chained?
Dog isnt in quarrantine…this is incorrect information…just to let the public know…this dog is in his home…if you call that quarrantine…the dog wasnt removed from the home or the neighborhood. And the dog has gotten loose before, but not bitten. He is a vicious animal who when seeing people outside barks at the windows of the trailer he lives in. If he ever got thru the windows …God forbid…
In Quarantine only means that certain conditions have to be met and that mainly involves not letting the animal run free. It should be kept on a leash at all times and exercised near to home. In essence, it means keeping the animal safe, away from wildlife, for a period of time, to see if it develops rabies. The only other way to know, is to euthanize the animal and send tissue samples to a laboratory to see if the animal is infected with rabies. If this animal were to be killed or die during the quarantine period, the victims would need to undergo the Pasteur treatment, a series of painful shots to prevent rabies in humans.
I’m sure there are several police officers trying to see who will get to blow the dog away. Why wait for the vet to do it when there are plenty trigger happy cops who would love to do it. Just tell them the dog is a veteran and they will line up.
Best wishes for a full recovery to the mother and child involved. Keeping a dog chained inside a house, is a concept I cannot fathom! I’ve been blessed with knowing some wonderful german shepherds over the years who were members of the family, and are sadly missed!
I hate the wording “destroyed.” Are we talking about an old, run-down building or a living creature?
Seems like the owner is very liable in this case. You can’t keep creeper dogs without risking losing it all on an unprovoked attack.
I have to wonder about some of the comments that presumably excuse the dog because it was seemingly abused by being chained all the time. If this was a person who went crazy and did something to another human, would you be excusing the human because he / she had been abused their whole life? We’d have folks her crying “freakin liberals / socialists, lettin this loser get away with murder: lock em up I say, throw away the key.” Since it’s a dog, perceived abuse is an excuse. If it was a human they would be called losers. Go figure.
Actually it would behoove us all to look at “criminals” as whole human beings. By that I mean we should look at all mitigating circumstances, like abuse, poverty and ignorance. It does not excuse the perpetrator but it should be considered when determining the punishment. To do less makes us barbaric.
As an example; if a man steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving children, should he be punished the same as a man who steals a loaf of bread just because he can?
Reality is not black and white, it is rather colored with many shades of gray. That is as true for humans as it is for the other animals who share the world with us.
Makes you wonder what he’s keeping in that trailer that he feels he needs a vicious guard dog. Now I’m not saying that he’s probably dealing dope. I’m just saying that he may be dealing dope.
Maybe he should give the dog a good home. Chained to the floor, in the house. Great life! Unbelievable