Dog held after
Maui attacks

A panel meets Dec. 5 to discuss
two cases involving a pit bull

A 5-year-old pit bull that attacked two Maui residents in separate incidents this month will be held at an animal shelter until mid-December, when the Maui County Animal Control Board is to decide the dog's fate.

The 85-pound pit bull, named Faust, sent a Haliimaile woman to Maui Memorial Medical Center in serious condition Tuesday night after it ripped off a "large portion of her scalp," said Maui Humane Society animal control Director Aimee Anderson.

Her left forearm was also fractured in the attack, and she sustained several deep lacerations to her upper arms and chest, Anderson said.

On Nov. 5, a man went to Maui Memorial for treatment after the dog attacked him. Police responded to the incident, but the extent of the man's injuries was not available.

The pit bull was impounded Friday, but Anderson said the earliest the animal control board is likely to take up its case is at a Dec. 15 meeting.

Anderson also said that if the humane society is notified of dog bites, animal control officers can investigate and determine whether the dog should be impounded. The society wasn't alerted to the Nov. 5 attack, but Anderson said that's not necessarily unusual.

"The hospital, when they get a dog bite, they call the police," she said. "But I sure as hell wish somebody had called us."

In Tuesday's attack, a 46-year-old woman was trying to visit the dog's owners at their Old Haleakala Highway home. Anderson said the victim saw the dog tied up and sat on a nearby rock wall, thinking the pit bull could not reach her.

That's when the dog came up behind her, "grabbed her by the head and pulled her backward."

Anderson said the woman called for help but got no answer. Once she got away from the dog, she jumped in her car and drove the 10 miles to her home, bleeding severely from her head and arm wounds.

When the woman got home, she called paramedics.

Anderson said the pit bull was apparently used as a security dog.