Play turns into terror
By Maria Papadopoulos, Enterprise staff writer
TAUNTON — Authorities are investigating an attack by a pit bull on a 10-year-old boy and a 65-year-old man that witnesses say resulted from the boy and his friend hitting the dog.
“It's definitely under investigation,” Sgt. Matthew McCaffrey said Thursday.
The female brown pit bull cried as it remained quarantined at the Taunton Animal Shelter Thursday following the 3:30 p.m. attack on Indian Meadow Drive.
Steven Sousa, 10, of Taunton, said he was strolling alongside his friend, Aaron Jacinto, 12, of Taunton, who was walking the dog, when it turned on him.
“We were up on the hill trying to take it back to (Aaron's) house and it just started attacking me,” said Sousa, who received 14 stitches in his left forearm and was treated and released from Morton Hospital Thursday. “He just grabbed my arm and took me down.”
Nearby was Louis D'Addario, 65, of Indian Meadow Drive, who heard Sousa call for help.
The dog had Sousa by the pants, and D'Addario initally thought the boys were playing with the dog.
“You know how kids play,” he said. “Then the dog grabbed him by the leg, so I went over and he let go of the leg and he grabbed the kid by the arm.”
“I kicked the dog twice and the dog looked at me like I was crazy, and it came after me,” D'Addario, a business manager, said as he pointed to a bandage on his right forearm that covered a bite wound. He did not require stitches, he said.
Neighbors said the two boys had been hitting the dog before the attack.
“We saw them hitting it with the leash and, like, beating the dog, hard,” said Joey Inacio, 15, who was walking home at the time. “They were hitting (the dog). It was just sitting there. It, like, put its head down a couple of times.”
At the time, Inacio said he thought of calling animal control officials to report what he had seen.
But the boys “stopped and started playing with” the dog, so he did not call authorities, he said.
“They were hitting the dog with the leash. It just kind of got to the dog and it snapped,” said John Keyes, 15, of Taunton, who saw the incident from his front porch two houses over.
The name of the dog's owner could not be learned Thursday. Witnesses and police, who responded to the scene, said the Jacinto family was looking after the dog for a friend.
The Jacinto family could not be reached for comment Thursday.
As various media outlets descended on the neighborhood, neighbors said the dog would get loose at times, but it did not appear vicious.
Dominique Osswald said she patted the dog “a couple of times” while walking around the block.
“It's unbelievable,” Osswald, 13, said of the attack.
“I saw (the dog) once just tied up in the back yard, or on a chain,” said Laura Keyes, 45.
Both Sousa and his mother, Suzanne Fagundes of Taunton, denied that he hit the dog.
Fagundes said she was inside her home when her son ran in “screaming” that he had been bitten by a dog, and she rushed him to the hospital.
“It was an unfortunate incident,” Fagundes said. “We know these dogs that are in the neighborhood, they're all friendly and we know them.”
Others were concerned about the fate of the dog.
“I don't think the dog should get punished for it,” Inacio said. “I think the dog should get taken away and put somewhere in proper care.”
Each year, 800,000 Americans seek medical attention for dog bites, and half of the victims are children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those injured, 386,000 require treatment in an emergency department and about a dozen die.
Thursday's incident was the latest dog attack in the region.
Last May, a Brockton man was hospitalized for six days with more than 30 dog bites after a neighbor's pit bull mauled him. Also that month, a 10-year-old Brockton boy suffered large bites on both lower legs after he was attacked by two Rottweilers while on his way to school.
McCaffrey said anyone who abuses an animal would face a criminal charge.
“I can't tell you what the dog's fate is going to be,” McCaffrey said.