Dogs taken after mailman mauled on East Side

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Dog Warden’s Office has seized two large dogs from an East Side home after a mail carrier was mauled Friday while making his rounds.

Witnesses and Dave Nelson of the dog warden’s office said the mail carrier suffered a severe arm injury and significant blood loss, and was still hospitalized Friday night.

One neighbor was hosing the blood off her sidewalk, front steps and railing after the attack, which took place about 12:30 p.m.

That neighbor, Kasina Flowers, said the carrier was delivering mail to a home in the 100 block of North Garland Avenue when the dogs jumped a fence in a driveway.

Flowers said to her it looked like only one of the dogs was attacking while the other dog was fighting with its companion. She said when she saw what was happening, she tried to help.

“I grabbed a broom and started hitting them with it,” Flowers said.

The mail carrier stumbled into her yard and up her steps before the dogs left him alone. Mariah Flowers, Kasina’s sister, said he appeared badly injured.

“There was blood everywhere,” she said. “You could see the muscle on his [mailman’s] arm.”

The sisters said they had never had any trouble with the dogs before.

A neighbor who did not want to give their name said they could hear the mail carrier scream, “Get them off me! Get them off me!” The neighbor also said it appeared as if only one dog was attacking.

But Nelson said the mail carrier told him both dogs attacked and he seized both dogs. They were both taken to the dog pound where they will be quarantined for 10 days until a decision is made if the dogs should be declared vicious.

Nelson said his agency served the dog owner, Chelsea Shrock, with citations for failure to confine, failure to license and failure to provide rabies documentation Friday, and will consult with the city prosecutor Monday about possible charges against her.

He said the victim received stitches and was slated to receive a rabies vaccination.

Sadie Meyers said the dog the neighbors described as attacking, an American bulldog, used to belong to her, but she gave that dog to her son because she said Friday “was not the first time” the dog had been in trouble.

Meyers said her son, who lives in the home where the dogs attacked, was working, and the dogs got loose when Shrock went over to care for them. Meyers said she had to pay a $300 fine in Struthers because of the dog.

“She’s very protective,” Meyers said of the dog. “I can’t keep her where I’m at. I have chihuahuas, and she killed one of them.”

Police with shotguns stood by as Meyers went in the home to bring the dogs out for Nelson so he could put them in his van. Both dogs were covered in blood.

Mark Rivera, the safety director for the National Association of Letter Carriers 395, said dog attacks are on the uptick in the area this summer because of the warmer weather. Rivera said that people leave their doors or windows open in warm weather, which allows their dogs to get loose.

Rivera said steps people can take to decrease attacks on carriers is to always know the general time their carrier is coming and make sure their dogs are inside and confined then. At the very least, he said, they should be tied to a leash in the backyard.

He said he was coming back from a convention in Chicago on Friday and knew of the attack, but he did not know many details.