The owners of two dogs that attacked and killed a Boston terrier puppy Tuesday in Winslow are being charged with keeping a dangerous dog, police said.
Danielle Jones and Brandon Ross, owners of the pit bulls involved in the attack, were summonsed on the civil violation Wednesday and are scheduled to appear Sept. 20 in Waterville District Court, according to a news release from the Winslow Police Department.
Sharron Carey was injured and the Boston terrier, Fergie Rose, was killed when the dogs, Bentley and Kole, attacked at 12:44 p.m. Tuesday. The two dogs are Staffordshire terriers – one of several breeds commonly referred to as a pit bull.
“I’m devastated,” Jones said through tears Wednesday afternoon. “I love all dogs and I never once trained my dogs to do this. I did not get them for protection. This is a horrific nightmare and if I could undo it, I would. I just hope (Carey) can find it in her heart to forgive everything. I know it hurts and if I could bring her dog back, I would.”
Jones said the attack was a “fluke accident” that was triggered when an unleashed neighborhood dog jumped on her backyard fence, spurring her dogs to escape. That dog is not the one killed in the attack.
“I’m not trying to deflect blame,” Jones said. “All I can say is they’ve never been loose once in the last year that we’ve lived here.”
The two dogs were taken to the Humane Society Waterville Area shelter Tuesday, where they are in quarantine.
A charge of keeping a dangerous dog can be lodged against any dog owner whose dog assaults or threatens a person or another domestic animal, Winslow Animal Control Officer Chris Martinez said Wednesday. Martinez, who works as an animal control officer in six Central Maine communities, did not have data on how often the charge is levied, but said it comes up “more frequently than you think.”
Most such complaints concern dogs that threaten or hurt a person, but Martinez said he does occasionally deal with fights between dogs.
According to Winslow police, the same two dogs involved in Tuesday’s attack also got loose and fought a neighbor’s dog in May 2015 on Halifax Street, when Jones and Ross lived at a different address. The owners and police broke up the fight before anyone, including the dogs, was seriously injured. Ross was summonsed on a charge of keeping an unlicensed dog.
Jones, who owns The Muddy Paw, a dog grooming spa and self-service dog wash, said that Bentley, a 3-year-old Staffordshire terrier, was attacked by a German shepherd as a puppy and as a result does not like other dogs.
Carey, 60, was treated at Inland Hospital in Waterville for multiple injuries after the attack and was released Tuesday night. Her daughter, Jennifer Holt, was with her at the doctor’s office Wednesday and said her mother is not doing well emotionally.
“It was extremely traumatizing,” Holt said. “She witnessed her dog being destroyed.”
Bill Carey, Sharron Carey’s husband, said Tuesday he would like Jones charged and the dogs euthanized. Jones said Wednesday that she wasn’t sure what should be done.
“I don’t want to be looked at as somebody that trained these dogs to be this way, because all I did was love them and try to help them,” she said.
Tuesday’s attack was the second reported attack by a pit bull in central Maine in recent months. No charges have been brought in a dog attack in June in Corinna that killed 7-year-old Hunter Bragg, of Bangor.
Penbobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton said Wednesday that attack still is being investigated.
Staff Writer Madeline St. Amour contributed to this report.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
