Benny Westcott
A Sweet Home woman was injured and one of her dogs was killed after a confrontation with a pit bull while on a walk last weekend.
At 10:13 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3 at 1530 Tamarack St., a civilian reported a pit bull attacking an elderly female and her dog. The caller told the cops that the pit bull still had the dog.
A Sweet Home Police Department officer arriving on the scene found a couple people holding the suspect pit bull, named Buster. The officer then used a catchpole to apprehend the dog and put it in the back of his patrol car, but not before the dog had done considerable damage.
The pit bull had allegedly attacked the dogs of Linda Forbes, 74, while she was taking her trio of canines for a walk. During the attack, Forbes was knocked down. Forbes described the scene and how one of her dogs, a six pound black and white chihuahua named Leiah, was being chomped by the pit bull.
“That pit bull got her in its mouth,” Forbes said. “Something came barreling at me and hit me right in the face. I felt like there were dogs on top of me fighting. And I found out later it was the pit bull and my little girl chihuahua.”
The chihuahua was injured so severely in the attack that she had to be put down. Forbes credited the six pound canine for valiantly protecting her. “To me the worst part is my little baby girl,” she said. “She tried to protect me. And she’s dead because she just tried to protect me. But if she hadn’t been there to protect me, that pit bull might have killed me.”
Forbes reported to police that as a result of the incident her leg was hurt, she had scratches on her hands and arms, and her face sustained an injury. She said she wasn’t bitten by the pit bull, but her head was injured when she fell to the ground.
Jennifer Walters, Forbes’ daughter-in-law who is taking care of Forbes during her estimated five-month recovery period, said that “The lady who called the ambulance for my mother-in-law, her husband actually had to wrestle the pit bull down to the ground to get Leiah out of his mouth.”
Multiple people apparently contributed to the effort. “I helped the man wrestle the dog onto the ground,” a man who would only give his first name, John, said. “The pit bull that had the chihuahua had her in his mouth, and he was shaking her. I had blood on both hands halfway up my arm. I had it on my shirt.” He said he could hear the pit bull breathing, and that it took a lot of strength to get the almost lifeless chihuahua free and the attacking pit bull back to its yard.
The pit bull was in that fenced yard before the attack and had somehow gotten out. “I don’t know how,” Police Chief Jason Ogden said. “Maybe the gate wasn’t latched. I don’t know.”
The pit bull was taken to Linn County Dog Control after the attack. Walters said that because of the pit bull’s aggressive actions, it’s likely going to get put down. As the family of the victim continues to recover, they say they want the pit bull owner to take responsibility for the dog’s actions.
“I hate to say it because I don’t want any dog euthanized,” Walters said. “I don’t want any animal euthanized. But this is a violent animal. And I don’t think it is going to be safe for anybody, because it has already got the taste of blood in its mouth. If you’re going to have an animal like that, if you don’t know how to deal with it, get training on it. But take responsibility for your animal.”
Helen Deacon, 57, was cited and released for maintaining a dangerous dog in relation to the event.