Dog Attacks Woman As Her Children Watch

As Pamela DeMaine walked across the street from her Spokane Valley home to check the mail, her two youngest children waited in the family car parked in the driveway.

Moments later, the children, ages 2 and 3, watched in horror last Saturday afternoon as their mother was knocked down and attacked by a neighborhood dog.

“Jake,” a black and gold Rottweiler, had trotted innocently down Mission Avenue toward DeMaine. The year-old dog sat back on his haunches and watched DeMaine.

“He sat right down in front of me acting like he wanted me to pet him,” said DeMaine, who briefly considered petting Jake before fear forced her to think better of the idea.

“I was talking to him, telling him, ‘It’s OK,’ trying to be as calm as I could be,” she continued. “And, of course, I was shaking.”

DeMaine’s fears were confirmed as the 80-pound dog lept at her, grabbed her right arm and flung her to the ground. Jake pounced on DeMaine, who weighs just over 100 pounds, and stared into her face.

When DeMaine threw her arm up to protect her face, the dog bit her on the buttocks. The bite tore her pants and cut her badly.

“I thought it would never end,” DeMaine said.

DeMaine managed to escape from the dog’s clutches and flee to her car as the dog pursued her. When she started the engine, the dog ran off.

Jake’s angry rage continued when county animal control officers arrived. Officer Sheri Kent had to tranquilize the dog to load it into her truck, said Nancy Sattin, animal control director.

DeMaine drove herself to Valley Hospital and Medical Center where she was treated and released for the wound to her buttocks. DeMaine’s leather coat kept the bite on her arm from breaking the skin.

The dog’s owner, Jeannie Wayne, was fined $228 and the dog has been quarantined at the animal control shelter.

“He’s not a vicious dog,” Wayne said. “He’s never, ever bitten anyone before. I do not understand it.”

DeMaine asked that Jake not be returned to the neighborhood and Wayne conceded, signing a consent form allowing the county to euthanize the dog.

“I feel really sorry for how my dog bit her,” Wayne said. “I can’t blame her for how she feels.”

, DataTimes