Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407110184
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Police said the matter is under investigation, but that no charges have been filed because the dog that attacked the girl was chained, as the law requires.
Linda Ferris took her three small children along when she went to look at a used car at 615 Tazewell Ave. S.E. around 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Ferris, of Rorer Avenue Southwest, left her kids standing in front of the house while she went around back to look at the car.
Ferris said that's when "a big black and white" dog dashed across the street and jumped on her seven-year-old daughter, Jessica Wilkins. The little girl shrieked and tumbled to the ground. But when she realized she hadn't been bitten she ran to put her three- and five-year-old brothers in her mom's car.
While trying to do that, according to a police report, Jessica ran into the yard of 617 Tazewell Ave., where a brown, medium-sized, mixed husky attacked her and began ripping at her face.
"I got up and the other dog got me down and bit me," Jessica said Thursday.
The dog tore five gashes into the left side of her face just above the temple.
"It just mauled her, bit her plumb to the skull," her mom said.
The little girl was rushed to the emergency room, where she spent the next six hours getting her face repaired. Police say there is a good chance she will need plastic surgery.
Ferris, already upset that her daughter had to endure such pain, is even angrier because the city's vicious dog ordinance may not be any help.
The ordinance, revised by City Council in 1992, authorizes a judge to order the humane destruction of a vicious dog. Police said it might not apply in this case, however, because the animal was chained and the attack took place on the owner's property.
Ferris said she's steamed because another resident on Tazewell Avenue said the same dog had attacked her daughter earlier.
A police department spokesman said the dog's owner still could be charged if the investigation reveals that the dog has attacked another child.
Despite the stitches lining the side of her head, Jessica appeared to be recovering from the attack.
Gripping three crayons in her hand and huddling close to her mom, the Hurt Park second-grader said she still isn't afraid of animals.
"I can pet my doggie, and all he'll do is growl," the little girl said.
Memo: above