Finley boy receives 20 stitches for dog bite

Laura Kate Zaichkin, Herald staff writer

A 9-year-old Finley boy needed 20 stitches to close wounds to his face after he was bitten by a dog in his neighborhood, his mother said Saturday.

"It sounds like he's lucky to be alive," said Sgt. Ron Sabin of the Benton County Sheriff's Office. "It was a serious dog bite."

Triston Jett was walking the half-mile home from a friend's house in Finley on Friday evening when a neighborhood dog knocked him to the ground and started biting him, said his mother, Shanda Reed.

The medium-sized border collie mix "tore his face up," Reed said.

"He has chunks of his arm missing" and bite marks on his stomach," she said. "It was a struggle. "The dog eventually did let up and he ran home."

Family took Triston to Kennewick General Hospital, where he was treated for his wounds and later released, Reed said.

The dog was found Saturday by authorities, who declared it to be dangerous, Sabin said. The dog will be chained or in a kennel at the owner's residence on Private Road 2410 Southeast for the next 10 days for observation.

The dog's owner is in jail, but the people who live at the residence intend to put it down after the observation period, Sabin said.

"I'm just furious about it," Reed said of the attack.

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Sunday, May. 03, 2009

Finley boy receives 20 stitches for dog bite

Laura Kate Zaichkin, Herald staff writer