Pit Bull

The dog rarely barked. He never growled, and his teeth - until a vicious attack Saturday night - had been reserved for chewing food, his owners say. Chocolate - a caramel-colored pit bull a little more than a year old - was one of the most tranquil dogs Kenneth and Melissa Garrison had until, unprovoked, he snapped and nearly bit the nose off the couple's 1-year-old son. Two days after the attack, sitting in the living room where their child's blood...

Howard County police officers looked for a wounded pit bull yesterday that remained loose after a skirmish with a Laurel police dog.Laurel K-9 Officer James R. Brooks was going home from work early Friday morning when two stray pit bulls attacked his dog on Livery Lane, according to Howard County police, who are investigating the case.Brooks tried to intervene, but the pit bulls were too aggressive.The officer fired at the dogs, wounding one. The dogs scurried off before they could be caught, police said.

An Anne Arundel County police officer shot and wounded a pit bull last night after being attacked by two of the dogs while responding to a domestic incident in Pasadena, police said.The incident happened about 9 p.m. in the first block of Tennessee Ave. as two officers arrived at the house.One officer, walking toward the door, noticed a pit bull running around the house, police said.The officer knocked on the door, and when a woman answered, he pushed her inside to escape the dog and yelled for his partner to stay in the patrol car.Another pit bull appeared, police said, and both dogs attacked Officer Roger Crawford, who had left the patrol car and was bitten in the upper left leg.Crawford shot one of the dogs, and the other "probably stopped [attacking]

Howard County police Chief Wayne Livesay says his department will recommend that a North Laurel couple's pit bull be put to death in an effort to protect the community.Speaking before a group of residents attending a North Laurel Civic Association meeting, Livesay said the dog belonging to Vincent and Teresa Gibson of the 9500 block of Washington Ave. is a threat to area residents."We're going to petition the [county Animal Control Hearing Board] for the destruction of the animal," Livesay told residents Tuesday night.

There was no growl, no snarl, no sound, just the sudden instant pain of a pit bull's teeth clamping so hard on Kevin Hoffmann's wrist that his doctor compared it to being crushed by a forklift.Terrified and alone, the Montgomery County animal shelter worker knew if the dog's teeth reached his neck, he could easily die. So Hoffmann, 29, dragged the dog -- attached to his right arm -- 50 yards through the kennel, using his other arm to protect his face.Help came when fellow kennel workers heard his screams and threw water on the dog to startle it so it would let go. His hand was all but severed -- held on only by some tendons and a nerve.

Cats are disappearing from Patterson Park neighborhoods at an alarming rate, and their owners are blaming pit bull breeders.Residents accuse the breeders of stealing the pets and using them as live bait to train the dogs as prize fighters.Two reports of dead cats found in the Southeast Baltimore park since Thursday have been confirmed. One was reportedly tied to a children's swing and allowed to be mauled and mutilated by a pit bull to give the dog "a taste of blood," a flier warning about the abductions says.

An Anne Arundel animal control officer has undergone two operations since a pit bull named Apache mauled him Friday morning as he was cleaning its kennel in the Glen Burnie Animal Shelter, police said.Tom Defibaugh, 45, of Severn, a 22-year veteran of Animal Control work, remained in satisfactory condition last night at Union Memorial Hospital after surgery to graft skin and muscle from his thighs onto his right arm. William Defibaugh, 21, said his father had emergency surgery Friday at the same hospital to reattach part of his left thumb, which the dog bit off.Animal Control spokeswoman Tahira Williams said that as far as she knows, Friday's mauling was the "most severe and traumatic" attack at the shelter.

Baltimore Councilwoman Agnes Welch -- who was bitten by a dog two weeks ago -- retaliated yesterday, introducing a bill that would allow the city to kill dogs found to be vicious.The measure is one of three bills introduced to crack down on vicious dogs in the city, which health officials say is a growing problem.Welch's bill would prohibit the training of attack dogs in Baltimore and create a hearing board to review complaints against vicious dogs and order euthanasia for those found to be involved in three attacks.

A black and tan pit bull named Leather is a potential child killer and should be destroyed, the dog's victims told the Carroll County Commissioners yesterday.The Carroll County Humane Society declared the dog a public nuisance July 22, but owner Karyl White of Westminster appealed that decision to the commissioners.Animals that are declared a public nuisance are normally killed within 10 days unless the owner appeals. The pit bull has been in the county animal-control shelter since July 15, when it attacked Mary Warren, 10, of Westminster, biting her on the arms, stomach and groin, leaving a 36-square-inch bruise.

Landlords can be held responsible for injuries caused by their tenants' dogs when the dogs attack people in the common areas of a property, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday.The ruling, reversing a Court of Special Appeals opinion in favor of landlords, appears to significantly broaden the liability of landlords for hazards on their property, according to one Baltimore lawyer who represents commercial and residential landlords.It may put an end to business owners using dogs as security at repair shops, junkyards and other such businesses, according to Aaron M. Levine, lawyer for the victims of the dog attacks in the court's decision.

Twins, 17, to be tried as adults in burning of dog 3 The 17-year-old twins accused of setting fire to a pit bull will be tried as adults, a judge decided Tuesday. Judge David Ross ruled that Tremayne and Travers Johnson will face felony animal cruelty charges in Baltimore Circuit Court, allegations that could send the boys to jail for three years. Attorneys for the twins argued that they were not properly cared for in the juvenile system after they were placed on probation for a handgun violation in October 2008.

In a city that's had it up to its collar with abused dogs and cats, nearly 60 people are pledging to get paw-print tattoos if a gang of tough guys with a soft spot for furry things will come to town in the name of stopping animal cruelty. The dozens promising to get tattoos on The Baltimore Sun's Unleashed blog hope to catch the attention of the guys behind Rescue Ink, a nonprofit group based in Long Island, N.Y., that's sort of a Hells Angels for the good of animals. Their motto: "Abusers are losers."

Corrections officers escorted the twin brothers into the courtroom together, the smaller one trailing just behind the other, their hands shackled behind their backs, their feet shackled at the ankles. Both wore blue jeans and white T-shirts. They looked younger than their 17 years. The guards brought them into the sixth-floor room after most of the day's chaotic docket of drugs and violence had concluded and the spectator benches had emptied but for two women. The youths stood in front of Baltimore Circuit Judge Charles G. Bernstein to be arraigned on adult charges that they had weapons in their home on South Pulaski Street.

Invoking the memory of a pit bull set ablaze in Baltimore, Gov. Martin O'Malley has asked the state's attorney general to review Maryland's animal cruelty laws to determine if they are sufficient to deter such "heinous" crimes. The legal review comes as the Baltimore City Health Department is seeking help in finding whoever tortured a cat found bound with a chain and rope to a utility pole and severely burned by firecrackers on Wednesday. Animal Control officers found the dead animal in the 3700 block of Lewiston Ave. near Arlington Elementary School.

The pit bull set on fire in West Baltimore last month might have been part of a dog-fighting operation, Baltimore's top police official said Tuesday. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said there were indications that dog fighting "may have been at the core" of the case, but he declined to elaborate. There had been previous reports that the dog had bite marks on its body. Police charged two teenagers over the weekend with setting the dog ablaze, but few details have been released as police and prosecutors pore over evidence.

Baltimore police said they have charged two teenagers with dousing a young pit bull with gasoline and setting it on fire in West Baltimore last month, a case that sparked furor over animal cruelty and generated more than $26,000 in donations to find the culprits. Police canceled a morning news conference Monday to discuss the arrests, which occurred over the weekend, saying detectives were consulting with prosecutors. No additional details were provided. "The case is still very much open and under investigation, and we are working with prosecutors to go over evidence and bring this case forward," said Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman for the Police Department.

Dog burners should be punished wisely A very similar story to the recent burning of a pit bull happened Aug. 19, 1957 in Prince George's County. Three boys painted shellac on the back of a boxer dog and then set him on fire. Four boys, ages 14 to 16, were charged. My father, Emmett Nanna Jr., was the presiding judge in the case, and his sentence won him awards nationally. He made the boys pay for the $95 to treat Duke (who survived) and then sentenced them to 24 Saturdays at an animal shelter.

When the moment came yesterday to honor the Baltimore officer who rescued a pit bull that had been set on fire 10 days ago, sparking a furor over animal cruelty and a reward that now tops $23,000, the city's police commissioner didn't credit her training, her bosses or her colleagues. He praised Officer Syreeta Teel's parents, Thurman and Deborah Evon, who he noted instilled values that transcend any training the Police Department can provide. "Officer Teel didn't need us to teach her to be a good person," said Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III at the City Hall ceremony that included the officer, her mother, father and sister and a bevy of city leaders.

The Baltimore police officer who rescued the pit bull that was set on fire last week has a pit bull herself. The pup's name is Blu, and is chocolate-brown with white markings, silky fur and green eyes. "He's a cutie," Officer Syreeta Teel said, showing off a picture on her iPhone of her pet slobbering a wet kiss on her face. "If anyone did that to my dog, I'd be crushed." Last Wednesday, two days before her own dog's first birthday, Teel turned her squad car around a corner, saw smoke and an animal similar to Blu in flames.

A young pit bull nicknamed Phoenix that was doused with gasoline and set afire in Baltimore on Wednesday died Sunday morning at a Pennsylvania veterinary hospital. Staff at Metropolitan Veterinary Associates outside Philadelphia said the dog, which was about a year old, was put down because her kidneys were failing. Burns that covered 95 percent of her body caused so much swelling around her face and rear quarters that, according to nurse Julie Hirsch, the dog was "barely recognizable."