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Janet Hartman could lose her arm after her son’s pit bull attacked and mauled the 63-year-old at his Pierceton home Tuesday.
Police and prosecutors say it’s likely no charges will result from the attack. The owner is allowed to keep the dog.
Hartman, also of Pierceton, stopped at her son Kevin’s house to drop off money for him about 5 p.m. She had been there before and had met her son’s pit bull before.
But this time no one was home at 9735 E. Kosciusko County Road 150 South, police said.
The dog was tied to a tree in front of the house, but the walkway to the front door was within the animal’s reach, according to Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Detective Josh Spangle, who was the second officer on the scene.
When Hartman approached the house, the dog attacked, police said. She put up her arm to protect her neck and face, and the pit bull’s jaws locked on, police said.
The dog chewed her arm down to the bone, police said, and doctors believe it might have to be amputated.
A neighbor who is an off-duty Warsaw police detective heard the attack and came to Hartman’s rescue. He hit the dog several times in the head before it let go and retreated to the porch, police said.
The next officer to arrive was Spangle, who was on his way home.
“That was a gruesome, bloody scene,” he said. “As far as a dog attack, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Spangle stood between Hartman and the dog and trained his gun on the animal. He said his first inclination was to shoot it, but since it had retreated to the porch and was no longer an imminent threat, he didn’t.
The dog stood on the porch smeared with Hartman’s blood and growled and barked. “It looked like it was going to come off the porch at any time, but it never did,” he said.
Hartman was flown to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne in serious condition. She was upgraded to fair by Wednesday.
Kevin Harman’s girlfriend, Heather Hersha, who also owns the dog, soon arrived and put the pit bull inside the couple’s house.
Because the dog’s vaccinations are current and the attack occurred on the owners’ property, the animal was not taken into custody and Hersha is allowed to keep it, Spangle said.
Similarly, criminal charges are unlikely in the case.
“As far as we know right now, it didn’t violate any laws,” sheriff’s department spokesman Sgt. Chad Hill said.
