Pet owner flees after dog bites boy
WAILUKU » Animal control investigators are looking for a woman in her 20s whose unleashed dog attacked a child at a beach park on Maui.
Sam Bryant, 7, suffered a bite to his right hand and hips in the attack close to noon Monday at Baby Beach in Paia.
"We've received quite a few calls," said Aimee Anderson, director of the Maui Humane Society's animal control section. "We don't know as of yet if they're going to bear fruit. ... We want to find this person and her dog."
Anderson said the dog that attacked Bryant had a large head and was gray and brown in color and weighed between 70 and 80 pounds.
She said the Caucasian woman, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, also had a small black-and-tan German shepherd type of dog.
Anderson said that according to the boy's father, Eric Bryant, Sam and his 10-year-old brother, Jacob, were digging holes in the sand near the breakwater when the dog attacked.
After the attack, Bryant said, the woman refused to go with him to see police and firefighters who responded to the emergency.
Anderson said a leash law violation carries a fine of up to $500.
She said there is no law against leaving the scene of a dog bite, but said the response of the woman was improper.
"That's very disconcerting when someone knows their dog has bitten someone and chooses to flee," Anderson said.
Anderson said county laws allow dogs on the beach as long as they are leashed.
She said the lack of compliance on the part of dog owners could eventually prompt the county to ban dogs at the beach.
"It's those irresponsible few that ruin it for everyone," she said.