SPARTANBURG, S.C. — An 11-year-old boy was treated at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center after a loose dog bit him repeatedly in a backyard on Kensington Drive on Friday morning, according to a Spartanburg Police Department incident report.
Officers were sent to the home at about 10:42 a.m. The boy’s mother had found the large dog in her front yard earlier that day, trailing a heavy chain. She posted photos online hoping to find its owner and hooked the chain to a runner out back so the animal would stay off the road.
With school out, the boy and an 8-year-old neighbor went out back to play and approached the dog, which had not growled or barked. It turned on the older child as he petted it. He told officers it bit him at least 10 times, leaving deep punctures and cuts on his arm, hand, knee and face near one eye. His father drove him to the hospital.
A department animal services technician knew the 2-year-old dog from earlier complaints at its home. Police impounded it, and it is being held in quarantine at the Spartanburg County Humane Society. Its owner, found on South Lanford Road, said it had no license and no rabies shots, police said, and she was cited, including for lacking a current rabies vaccination.
State public health rules call for every animal bite to be reported to the S.C. Department of Public Health by the end of the next working day so a rabies investigation can begin. A person bitten by an unvaccinated animal that may carry rabies gets a series of shots spread over 14 days, though locating the animal for quarantine can make that unnecessary.
Section: More Spartanburg SC crime news
Filed under: Spartanburg SC Public Safety News
