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Charges likely in 3 cases involving animals
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
Criminal charges likely will be filed against owners of several abused or aggressive animals in three separate cases involving dogs and cats in the city.
A 7-year-old North Hazelwood Avenue boy has been taken to Akron Children’s Hospital main campus for unspecified surgical procedures after being attacked by a pitbull-mastiff mixed- breed dog.
The boy initially was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman with bite marks to his wrist, thigh, toe and groin area just after 5 p.m. Wednesday. He was listed in critical condition.
According to police reports, the boy was playing in the driveway of a home at 29 N. Hazelwood Ave. on the West Side with another child who lives in the home when the dog got out of a fenced-in area to the rear of the home and attacked him.
The dog’s owner, Michael Meuter, voluntarily handed the dog over to representatives of the Mahoning County dog warden’s office shortly after the attack.
Sean Toohey, deputy dog warden, said the dog will be held for 10 days in quarantine then euthanized.
Meuter told police the dog had been involved in a previous bite incident, but Toohey said officials have discovered the dog had been involved in three previous bite incidents before attacking the boy this week.
Nikole Baringer of Animal Charity Humane Society, said 46 cats and four dogs had to be euthanized after being taken from a North Side house in deplorable condition earlier this week.
Humane agents also took two ferrets from the Norwood Avenue home, but those animals are being housed at animal charities and will likely be up for adoption.
Baringer said charges are pending against the owners of the animals.
Baringer said the cats were euthanized after testing positive for feline leukemia. She said the disease poses a threat to any cat not vaccinated against the disease.
“If we would have kept the cats, the disease is so easily spread that all they would have had to do is touch noses with another cat to spread the disease,” said Baringer. “Once it is contracted, it cannot be cured.”
Baringer said the four dogs were euthanized because they were highly aggressive.
Animal Charity officials suspect that a pitbull-mix dog that was rescued Tuesday and died that night had been used in dog fighting.
The dog should have weighed 60 to 70 pounds but weighed 25 to 30 pounds, said Joe Borosky, Animal Charity humane agent.
The 1- to 2-year-old dog was found by police severely dehydrated and near death in the backyard of an abandoned Norwood Avenue home. It was tied with a tow chain padlocked around its neck.
Animal Charity has offered a $250 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the dog’s owner. Private citizens and businesses have bumped up the reward to $900.
Baringer said many tips have come into the agency regarding the dog’s owner, and agents are following up on those tips.