Jim RiccioliMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
For Kim Petak, it's hard to separate what was worse: the shock of seeing her dog attacked by a roaming pit bull or the aftermath, with all her frustrations stemming from the lack of critical information she subsequently needed.
Like, would her son require rabies shots? And who had set the aggressive dog free to roam the park?
The attack happened in a wooded area at the south end of Greenfield Park in West Allis on May 26, a quiet Sunday afternoon during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Petak, 67, and her son, David, 25, were walking their two dogs, Koda and Milo, when the pit bull made a beeline directly at Koda, clamping down on his left ear.
Koda — a 6-year-old, 70-pound male white German shepherd — never saw it coming, said Petak, a Muskego resident accustomed to taking her dogs to the Milwaukee County park, among other places. She can't help reliving that moment, when the pit bull bit through Koda's ear, prompting a struggle during which David wrestled with the dog to free Koda from its grasp.
But it wasn't just the attack that upset her. It was what happened afterward, as she and David tried to find out if the pit bull had been vaccinated for rabies. Lacking an immediate response from animal care officials, David, who was bitten during the struggle, was forced to begin a series of rabies shots, despite the fact that records later revealed that the dog had been vaccinated.
"It's probably because I'm thinking about it that it gets my stress level up again," she said.
Pit bull attack in Greenfield Park came without warning
Petak said the attacking dog, which West Allis police described as a black terrier mix, came up from behind them as they were walking through the wooded area in the park north of Lincoln Avenue.
But, she noted, the pit bull seemed focused on the dogs. Koda, who Petak said might have reacted more aggressively in response had the attack not come as a surprise from the rear. That, she acknowledged, may have only made matters worse given the pit bull's sheer strength and the possibility that it was trained to fight.
"They have a really strong bite and they're very tolerant in their resistance to pain," she said. "So in my mind, we had the worst combination of factors — a loose pit bull who's aggressive, with no owner to help you subdue that dog."
Once the Petaks realized what was happening, David jumped into the fray. Kim Petak said he placed his hand inside the pit bull's mouth to press down on its tongue, a strategy intended to prompt it to release its vise-like grip on Koda's left ear. It worked, but the pit bull tried to attack again by getting around the Petaks to where Koda was standing.
That's when David decided the best bet was to remove Koda the only way he could. He picked him up and moved away quickly.
But that only prompted the pit bull to turn its attention to Milo, a smaller white German shepherd mix. Fortunately, Petak said, Milo rolled over submissively, fending off a physical attack. Meanwhile, another man hiking in the park helped restrain the pit bull, with Petak using an extra leash she had in the car, until police arrived to remove the animal.
Microchip leads to pit bull owner's identification
After bringing the crated pit bull to the West Allis Police Department, police were able to glean a vital piece of information through the use of a microchip reader: the name of the dog's owner. The reader provided a code that police were able to call into a pet database agency, which in turn provided police with the owner's name and last-known address and phone number.
Neither piece of contact information proved helpful, however.
The man, who was identified in the police report, claimed he had been forced to let a friend take care of his dog as he sought new housing recently. That friend then brought the dog to another friend, who lives near Greenfield Park. Authorities did not discover or report any additional information about the role the chain of dog handlers played in the incident.
But records showed that the dog had been microchipped at the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission in West Milwaukee, so, after unsuccessfully making contact with its owner, that's where the dog was brought for a mandatory 10-day quarantine period.
At MADACC, police shared the owner information, which helped officials there to subsequently determine that the dog had been at the agency recently. That led to a successful search for the owner, who talked to police.
MADACC was slow to respond to rabies vaccination request, Petak and police say
But the police involvement opened another issue that Petak stressed in her summary of events: whether MADACC withheld information on the pit bull's vaccination status when it was requested.
According to the police report filed by Officer Mitchell Schroeder, MADACC refused to release vaccination records, even after authorities provided the owner information obtained from microchip records, on that first day after the attack. The report said that information would be released to the health department.
That, unfortunately, put her son on a tight timeline, Petak said. Without proof of vaccination, victims of dog bites are encouraged to begin a series of painful, costly shots — two immunoglobins and two rabies vaccines — within 24 to 48 hours to fend off an often fatal case of rabies. A second series of shots are required on the third day, followed by additional shots on the seventh and 10th days.
Because the attack happened a Sunday afternoon, and Monday was Memorial Day, Petak realized that when MADACC reopened on Tuesday after the holiday, the 48-hour window would soon close for David. "So I convinced him to get the rabies shots (on Sunday) because we were not going to know if this dog has had the vaccine until Tuesday," she said.
Still, David would be able to avoid the second series of shots on Wednesday if the Petaks could confirm whether the pit bull had been vaccinated. So Kim Petak called MADACC on Tuesday morning. However, like in the police officer's claim, she said was unable to obtain that information, forcing David to schedule an urgent care appointment for the next day, she said.
"They would not tell me! Crazy, I know," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
Fortunately, when told of the circ*mstances, a nurse on duty during David's Wednesday appointment took matters into her own hands to retrieve the dog's vaccination status.
"The nurse said 'I'm going to call (MADACC) and find out,' and, by God, she did," Petak said.
While David was able to avoid the second round of shots, his mother remained frustrated nonetheless, especially when she learned that the dog had been microchipped and vaccinated at MADACC.
"I believe it was (also) adopted out from MADACC so these records would have been easily retrieved by them," Petak said. "Instead they make my son's life difficult in not knowing the rabies status of the dog. ... It could have avoided any vaccines for my son."
MADACC says records are freely offered on request
However, MADACC officials, in response to reporter questions on both the police report and Petak's own recollections, claim it's highly unlikely the agency declined to provide the requested vaccination information.
Karen Sparapani, MADACC's executive director, said such information is routinely provided to police officers on request and to anyone else on an open records request, including, in the case of a bite victim, a verbal request over the phone.
"I don't think we would have refused to provide it," Sparapani said.
She recalled talking with Petak by phone on Tuesday, May 28, but didn't recall any request for vaccination information. Sparapani said that if Petak had requested it, she would have provided it immediately, given the circ*mstances.
"I actually find it one of the most freeing parts of my job, that I don't have to not tell people stuff," she said, noting that MADACC strives to be a transparent governmental agency.
Sparapani said she also talked with the employee who was on duty May 26 when the officer was on site. The employee told Sparapani the police officer never asked for vaccination information and said she is confident in the employee's assertion.
"This is a person who has worked here for many years," Sparapani said. "Even if she didn't want to print out anything for him, we would have just looked (at the digital record), clicked, and then seen it says 'current' for rabies (vaccination)."
She confirmed that MADACC was able to contact the owner and confirm that the pit bull was up to date on his vaccination records, which show the shot was administered in February.
Petak wonders about similar dog attacks in Milwaukee area
Despite her frustrations, Petak is glad the situation wasn't wose.
She felt fortunate that the pit bill was not aggressive toward people. In fact, in his statement to police, David noted that the dog acted in a friendly manner toward him once the other dogs were removed and the struggle had ended. The officer had a similar notation.
But that also left Petak wondering: Had the dog been trained to fight other dogs?
Her suspicions were heightened by three factors: information on the owner, the unexplained presence of a waiting car with obscured license plates in the parking lot shortly after the attack, and reports of another dog attack hours earlier nearby.
She shared her concerns on the neighborhood social media app NextDoor, including a reference to a report from her insurance agent about similar incidents in the Milwaukee area. She also learned of a dog attack on May 26, reported by WTMJ, just hours earlier. (The dog in that incident was aggressive toward people, however, unlike the pit bull identified in the Greenfield Park incident.)
While other specific incidents weren't cited, NextDoor members had reportedly posted unconfirmed incidents about a vehicle deliberately setting a pit bull loose, resulting in an attack before the dog immediately returned to the car, which then drove off, Petak said.
Petak acknowledged she couldn't be sure Koda's injuries were the result of the same alleged pattern, admitting she didn't want authorities to think she was a "nutso job." She nonetheless looked into the dog owner's background out of curiosity.
Petak has contacted Milwaukee County Parks officials to ask if they can review surveillance video to see if anything warranted further investigation. As of mid-June, she had not received any further information.
Sparapani noted that dog incidents are increasingly problematic in the Milwaukee area and nationally.
"If you look at the statistics, bites are going up, fatal attacks are going up," she said.
And she said some dog owners act irresponsibly, in some cases to the extent of running puppy mills to fill a demand for certain breeds, including pit bulls, which get a bad reputation as the result of being improperly trained or cared for. "Humans beings are the problem, not pit bulls," Sparapani said.
Koda and his owner remain on path to recovery after the attack
Petak said Koda's injuries were treatable, but the longer term impact on him, or Petak, is not yet certain.
The dog's left ear was sutured for the puncture wounds at the Wisconsin Veterinary Referral Center's emergency care facility in Waukesha, and he was given antibiotics. Petak has also restarted Koda's dog obedience training, which includes tracker training similar to what police dogs can do. So far, he has responded well.
"So I think he is over it more than I am," she said.
In addition from what she expects to be in excess of $3,000 in people and pet medical care bills, Petak admitted she's still shaken by the incident. "I don't plan on taking my dogs back (to Greenfield Park)," she said.
Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.
