Pit bulls maul dog in Carmel Attackers euthanized

CARMEL – Two pit bulls were euthanized Monday after they escaped from their owner’s house on Route 2 on Saturday and attacked a neighbor’s dog, according to authorities.

Jack, the 7-year-old German shepherd that was attacked, had 14 bites from the pair of pit bulls, said owner Heather Babcock, who lives with her husband and two young daughters next door to the owner of the pit bulls.

“This has been a problem that has been going on for quite some time,” Babcock said Monday morning before the dogs were removed.

The pit bulls apparently pushed an air conditioner out of a window to escape and attacked Jack at around 9 p.m. Saturday.

“They came up on my deck and just mauled him,” Babcock said.

Her 13-year-old daughter was home alone at the time of the attack.

“She went out with a broom” to break up the dogs, Babcock said. “We’re lucky nothing else happened.”

Babcock added that another time the dogs had escaped from their home, she found her 9-year-old daughter in the backyard fearing for her life.

“She was up on the picnic table,” she said, adding, “Somebody is going to get hurt.”

Jack was bleeding profusely when Babcock took him to the Eastern Maine Emergency Veterinary Clinic in Brewer on Saturday. He was unable to walk Monday, and the vet bill totaled more than $500, Babcock said.

The pit bulls’ owner, Shannon Lee, was upset about the decision to euthanize the dogs, but voluntarily complied when asked to do so by the town and the town’s animal control officer, Kathie Ricker.

“This afternoon, I escorted the owner and the dogs to Penobscot Veterinary, and they were put down,” Ricker said.

Lee, who is not facing any legal charges stemming from the incident, did not return a message left on her answering machine Monday.

In addition to numerous complaints about the dogs being at large, Town Manager Tom Richmond said the pit bulls were not licensed and did not have records of rabies vaccinations.

A litter of 5-week-old pit bull puppies was not taken from Lee’s home by authorities but are in the process of being adopted, the animal control officer said.

“She has four of the seven puppies, and I told her I would help place them,” Ricker said. “Had the Bangor Humane Society had any room, they would have gone there today.”

Three of the puppies already have been placed in another home, she said.

“I don’t think there is anyone who is more remorseful than her,” the animal control officer said of Lee.

Babcock said she is sorry that the dogs had to be put down, but is relieved that her family is safe.

nricker@bangordailynews.net

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