2-Year-Old Bitten By Dog; Mom’s Boyfriend May Be Charged

A Spokane Valley man may face reckless endangerment charges for allegedly encouraging a 2-year-old girl to kiss a growling dog that ripped a large gash in her face.

Douglas Dean DuVall, 45, had the dog, a rottweiler-German shepherd mix known as Rajah, in a headlock with his right arm and Christine Peterson tucked under his left when the dog attacked the girl late last Thursday, animal control officials said.

Christine suffered a large cut that extends from her forehead, down her nose and onto her left cheek. It took 15 stitches to close the wound. The bite also left two small puncture wounds under Peterson’s chin. Her eyes were not injured.

Doctors who treated Christine at Valley Hospital and Medical Center expect the wound will leave the girl permanently scarred, according to a Sheriff’s Department report. She was released from the hospital early Friday.

“She kept telling me, ‘Daddy make it stop,’ because she was in so much pain,” said Dean Peterson, the girl’s father, who left work to meet his wife and daughter at the emergency room after the attack.

Christine and her mother, Andrea Peterson, were visiting Andrea Peterson’s aunt, Nickola Snow, when the attack occurred in the living room of the Valley home that Snow shares with DuVall, her boyfriend. Andrea Peterson and her cousin Jason Mahaffy looked on while DuVall tried to coax the girl into kissing the growling, 85-pound dog.

Andrea Peterson and Mahaffy told sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Jones, who took the bite complaint at the hospital, that Rajah started growling when DuVall kissed it and began encouraging the girl to do the same. The dog lunged at Christine’s face when DuVall pulled his head back.

“The dog doesn’t like to kiss,” Dean Peterson said.

A telephone message left at DuVall’s home was not returned.

Detectives plan to recommend prosecutors file reckless endangerment charges against DuVall, according to the animal control report. Snow owns the dog, but was in bed when the girl was bitten and did not witness the attack.

Nancy Sattin, county animal control director, said the dog has been deemed potentially dangerous, rather than dangerous, because the bite was provoked. Most dogs involved in severe attacks are declared dangerous. The distinction means Snow will not have to meet elaborate fencing and insurance requirements to keep the dog.

The dog is being confined in Snow’s fenced back yard during a rabies quarantine period, Sattin said.

Dean Peterson said his daughter had played with the dog several times before the incident, but now gets nervous around dogs.

“Every dog she’s seen, all she says is ‘Daddy, puppy bite me,”’ Peterson said.

, DataTimes