STAR-BULLETIN / 2004 Officials euthanized Faust yesterday, a pit bull that mauled a Maui woman last November.

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Pit bull that
attacked woman
is destroyed

WAILUKU » The pit bull dog that mauled a Maui woman and left her with serious injuries has been destroyed.

Faust, who had been held at the Maui Animal Shelter since Dec. 3, was euthanized with a sodium pentobarbital injection yesterday morning, Maui Humane Society Animal Control Director Aimee Anderson said.

Society officials supported euthanizing the dog because of its danger to the public, but they became attached to Faust during its three-month confinement, Anderson said.

"You can't but help to have an emotional attachment. ... It doesn't make it any easier," she said. "This is really emotional for us."

The dog was cremated at the animal shelter, and an employee plans a private burial of the ashes, Anderson said.

The dog's owner, Scot Barrie, did not attend the euthanization. He had signed over ownership of the dog to the society to avoid paying for costs, such as attorney's fees and the room and board at the shelter.

Humane society officials estimated it cost more than $1,665 to shelter the dog while its fate was decided.

The 90-pound dog, about 5 years old, attacked Haliimaile resident Sandra Sardinha, who was visiting a family at a Pukalani residence where Barrie lived on Nov. 16.

Sardinha had skin from her right ear grafted to her scalp to help cover a head wound, and she suffered numerous bites to other areas, including her neck, chest, left forearm and right jaw.

In a Dec. 1 decision, the county Animal Control Board gave Faust a reprieve but ordered Barrie to confine Faust in a kennel or a house with the doors and windows closed.

But on Dec. 3 an animal control worker seized Faust after finding an open window at Barrie's residence.

Sardinha has filed a lawsuit against Barrie.