Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 17, 1994                   TAG: 9405170105
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELLISTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DOG BITES 2ND CHILD IN LESS THAN A YEAR

The dog will be held for observation at the Montgomery County dog pound for 10 days, then returned to its owner, said Kelly Walters, animal control officer.

Walters said the victim, Ashley Walton, was playing at Hale's Trailer Park in Elliston on Sunday at about 7:30 p.m. The dog, a female, belonged to a neighbor and had been chained earlier but was loose at the time, Walters said.

Clare "Doc" Zaronsky, captain of the Shawsville Rescue Squad, said Ashley was on a swing set between her home and a neighbor's home when the dog attacked.

Some witnesses said the dog dragged the girl by the back of the head, Walters said.

Donna Reed, Ashley's mother, said her daughter had to have 16 stitches to two bites on her head. The girl had never played with the dog before, she said, and was still scared Monday.

"She has slept, since yesterday evening, a total of 191/2 minutes," Reed said.

Reed was working outside in a flower garden and saw the attack. She said the dog bit her on the ankle as she tried to rescue her daughter. As she tried to put her leg in between the dog and her child, the dog grabbed Ashley again and swung her around, Reed said.

"She was really smart because she kept trying to hide her little face with her hands," during the attack, Reed said.

Walters charged the dog's owner, Audrey L. Scott, with allowing a dog to run at large and having an unlicensed dog. There's little else he can do.

"We don't have a vicious dog law in Montgomery County," he said.

After 10 days pass, the dog can be returned to its owner. Scott has said she doesn't want the dog and will give it away, Walters said.

The dog appeared friendly Monday, approaching when Walters called it to the front of its pen and allowing Walters to pet it.

Zaronsky, who also is employed with the county Health Department, said the dog does not have a current rabies vaccination.

The 10-day quarantine is a way to check for any symptoms of rabies, he said. Should any symptoms be observed, the Health Department could then ask that the animal be destroyed.

Zaronsky said the dog bit a 9-year-old girl at the trailer park in October. Reed said the girl is her niece, and said the dog also bit her son, Patrick, on the leg last summer.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***