'Blood was flying everywhere'
Toolbox
By PATRICIA MINICHIELLO Staff Writer - Published: July 2, 2009
A recent trip to the Green Mountain Plaza in Rutland Town ended in bloodshed for a Connecticut man with a second home in Ludlow.
Curtis Stewart, 64, was attacked from behind by a pit bull in front of Hannaford supermarket. The dog knocked him down, bit his legs and right shoulder and latched onto his right elbow, refusing to release.
The attack happened around 3 p.m. June 25 as Stewart walked from PETCO toward Hannaford supermarket with his 25-pound sheep dog, Jeannie, who was on a leash.
As he and Jeannie walked, Steward heard a snarling to his right. He looked over and spotted a black pit bull and another dog chained to a picnic table.
"The pit bull was straining, snarling and lunging against its chain," Stewart said. "The next thing I knew, a lady yelled, 'Oh my God look out.' I went to bend down to pick Jeannie up because I didn't know what was coming from behind and I was hit right in the middle of the back and knocked to the ground."
Stewart said with his arms around Jeannie, he tried to get up as the pit bull gnawed his left shoulder, then his right, then both his knees, finally clamping onto his right elbow, refusing to release.
"The dog was literally tearing his arm and blood was flying everywhere," a report filed with the Rutland County Sheriff's Department said.
Stewart said he began slamming the dog against a cement pillar in front of Hannaford.
"I was swinging the dog's body against the cement column and it was clamped onto my elbow and I repeatedly swung him against the column," Stewart said.
At the same time, a bystander grabbed a shopping cart and started ramming the cart against the pit bull's body. Stewart said a combination of being slammed against the cart and the cement post finally got the dog to release.
"As soon as the dog was off me, a couple of people who had been inside Hannaford — I think they were afraid to come out, understandably so — they came rushing out and grabbed me and Jeannie and rushed us into that entranceway."
"I remember just sitting there, soaked in blood and I think I probably went into shock, because I was having difficulty breathing," Stewart said.
An ambulance was called to the scene and Stewart was transported to Rutland Regional Medical Center.
Stewart sustained injury to his knees, legs and right arm and elbow, and literally had flaps of skin where the dog had torn his arm. One of the wounds took 13 stitches, the sheriff's report said.
The pit bull's owner, Richard Holman, was shopping in Hannaford supermarket at the time of the attack. Holman came out after the incident and Stewart's wife, Jill, approached him to try to get as much information as she could. She asked to see the dog's tags and the name on the tag, "Anoki," did not match the name Holman called the dog, "Bugsy."
A few minutes later, Deputy David Fox, arrived on the scene to interview Holman.
Holman, from New Jersey, was described in the sheriff's report as "homeless" and "hiking the Long Trail." He produced a New Jersey photo ID verifying his identity and also verified his pit bull had a rabies tag from a Robbinsville, N.J., veterinary clinic.
Although the name Holman used for the dog, "Bugsy," and the name on the rabies tag, "Anoki" didn't match, Sheriff Stephen Benard said he spoke to an employee of the veterinary clinic in New Jersey who described the pit bull down to his exact coloration and was confident the vaccination tags belonged to Holman's pit bull.
Holman and his pit bull were free to leave from the scene that day.
The next day, Stewart started a rabies vaccination protocol to be safe.
Stewart said after the attack, his wife got all the names of the people who helped him and he plans to thank them in the near future.
He said he hopes the laws in Vermont change, so that this type of incident doesn't happen again.
"It seems like there should be stronger, more immediate action when a dog attacks in a situation like this," he said.
"If I had been a little kid, I'd be dead. I am a pretty fit guy, and I am comfortable around dogs, I am pretty strong. It took me smashing his body repeatedly into the post and another man ramming him with a shopping cart to get him to let loose," Stewart said.
Stewart was planning to play trumpet for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in a performance slated for 8 p.m. at Okemo's Jackson Gore in Ludlow the day after the attack. The VSO performed that night without Stewart.
As of Wednesday — the start of the new fiscal year — Rutland Town will no longer be using the sheriff's department to handle animal control calls. Instead, the Select Board recently voted to have the Rutland Town Police Department handle the calls.
patricia.minichiello@rutlandherald.com
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