Maui boy recuperates
from dog attack

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

KIHEI >> The 5-year-old Maui boy attacked by a mixed-breed pit bull has been released from Maui Memorial Medical Center.

Trevor Sifton, a kindergartner at Kamalii Elementary School, was recuperating at home in Kihei Villages condominium yesterday afternoon, although he still had a slight fever and complained about the pain from the wound in his right calf.

Sifton also had a bite on his left arm and still had swelling from a scratch on the right side of his face and a slight puncture mark on the right side of his neck.

His mother, Kellie Sifton, said she was relieved when she received a telephone call yesterday from the Maui Humane Society, saying the dog had been destroyed.

"Our main concern is it can't harm anybody else," she said. "He was a scary dog."

The dog, weighing about 68 pounds, often barked from behind a fence, and its chain could be heard rattling as neighbors passed by the walkway.

Sifton said the dog was big enough for its head to be seen as it raised itself and looked over the fence, which is about 4 feet high.

Trevor, who weighs about 50 pounds, was running home along the walkway after his first karate lesson Monday evening when the dog leaped the fence and pounced upon him, Sifton said.

Luckily, she said, her oldest son, David, was following Trevor and wrestled the dog to get it off his brother.

David, 11, said a male neighbor ran to help the boys, and the dog withdrew from attacking his brother.

Aimee Anderson, the society's animal control supervisor, said it does not appear the boys provoked the dog, and her organization had not received previous complaints about the dog.

Anderson recommended dog owners build a fence at least 6 feet high to contain their animals.

Sifton said her son did not want to talk to the news media and preferred to focus on activities familiar to him, such as playing GameBoy.

Sifton said Trevor did tell her that he felt the dog should go to "doggie jail."

She said she told Trevor yesterday that the dog had been removed from the neighborhood.