Anchorage Daily News

The pit bull that critically injured a young girl during a vicious attack in her East Anchorage home was put to death Wednesday at the request of its owner, according to Anchorage Animal Care and Control.

The family pet, Dozer, was also responsible for attacking the girl's baby sitter Tuesday afternoon. A neighbor shot the dog in the leg while trying to get it off the baby sitter.

The owner surrendered Dozer to animal control officials later that night, and the dog was killed by lethal injection Wednesday evening.

"He was owner-surrendered for euthanasia by his owners," said animal control spokesman Scott Gower. "This is such a terrible situation to happen to people. No one foresees that their dog will do something like that."

The condition of the 6-year-old girl, whom police have refused to name, was unclear. Officials at Alaska Native Medical Center would not release information about her, including whether she was still a patient there, saying the girl's mother wouldn't allow it.

She underwent surgery Tuesday afternoon for what police called life-threatening injuries, including what one witness characterized as a severe wound to her neck. The baby sitter, Kristine Smith, was treated and released from the hospital for her injuries, which included bite marks on her arm, said Troy Danforth, who lives next door with her.

Danforth followed Smith's screams to the scene of the attack, pulled his .38-caliber handgun on the dog and shot several times, striking it once in the leg. Before the attack, the dog had never seemed problematic, and Danforth said he had played with Dozer himself in the yard the night before it apparently snapped while playing with Smith and the girl. Still, he thinks the decision to kill the dog was the right one.

"It's already attacked somebody, so there's no reason to keep it alive," Danforth said. "I just want it to be over and done with."

Friends and neighbors were the only ones at the home off East 32nd Avenue and Lee Street on Wednesday afternoon. Among them was Dawn Newton, who was helping clean up and take care of the remaining two dogs. The carpet was torn in the attack, and there was blood on the phone and wall, she said.

"It's just a nice thing to do and not have to come home and worry about that," Newton said.

Lt. Paul Honeman said police involvement in the case was waning because no crime had been committed. Danforth's shooting appears to be a justified case of defending a person in danger, and police would likely soon return his handgun, which they seized following the shooting. The children also appeared to be properly supervised at the time of the attack, he said.

"If the mom walked away, left the 6-year-old and 4-year-old in the trailer by themselves with three dogs, that'd be different, but she had an adult caregiver baby sitting, and what can you do?" Honeman said. "Whether its a wise decision may not equate to whether its a criminal decision."

The other child was not injured in the episode.

Despite the attack, Gower said pit bulls are not an inherently bad breed. Any type of dog can snap and attack someone if it's handled improperly or gets too excited, he said.

"Pit bulls can be wonderful pets," Gower said. "Occasionally something might happen, but they're no more likely to bite than any other dog."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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