Dog that bit victim west of Chehalis declared dangerous
A dog residing on a property in the Claquato community west of Chehalis was declared dangerous last week, months after biting a man working on the property where the dog and its owners live.
The Lewis County Dangerous Animal Designation Board declared a mixed breed dog named "Biggie" as dangerous during its hearing on Monday, July 6, at the Lewis County Courthouse. Both the owner of the dog and the victim of a single but traumatic bite attended the hearing.
According to reports from the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, the owner of the dog, Jason Trice, had on multiple occasions recognized that his dog was responsible for the bite.
In Lewis County, dogs can be deemed dangerous if they inflict severe injury to a human without provocation or kill a domestic animal while off the owners' property.
The hearing concluded with Trice signing an agreement to follow through with actions that will allow him to keep the dog, which include a proper enclosure, liability insurance and warning signs around the property where the dog will be enclosed.
According to a police report filed by Lewis County Community Service Officer David Sims, the bite that got Biggie in trouble was first reported in April. At the time, a co-resident of the property where the dog lives, David Williams, came to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office to report a dog bite that had happened roughly a month earlier.
Williams lives on the same property as the dog, residing in one of the two homes that are rented out by the owner of the property. The owners of the dog, Trice and his mother, Tracie Markham, live in the other house on the property.
When Sims responded to the report, Williams described the scene and referred Sims to speak with the victim.
According to both Williams and the victim, the two were working on the property after the victim had come by to deliver parts for a work vehicle. When the victim crossed the property to grab something from a nearby shop area, the dog appeared and bit him on the back of the leg, leaving two large and bleeding puncture wounds behind his knee.
The victim recalled yelling out in pain and having to kick the dog to get it to release its bite before it ran away.
According to the report, the victim and Williams confronted the dog owners at the time, but the victim refused to receive medical care out of concern for the cost and told the owners things were OK.
"He told Tracie at the time it wasn't a big deal, but he said he regrets that and that he did not seek medical assistance because he couldn't afford a medical bill," reads Sims' report.
When the victim was contacted by Sims more than a month after the bite, he reported originally believing that the bite would heal normally. However, the positioning of the injury on part of his knee made it difficult to heal properly as movement would reopen the wound.
"He thought the wound would just heal up, but due to the severity of the bite and where it is on the back of his knee area, it continues to tear open because he cannot take time off work to immobilize the leg," wrote Sims in his report.
The owners of the dog were, according to the report, apologetic and admitted to ownership of the dog when contacted by Sims. They added that there had been another incident involving the dog and a delivery driver but that nothing had come of it afterward.
Williams reported to Sims that his own family had been concerned about the dogs in the past and that the dogs running around on the property had previously been an issue. He added that he reported the dog bite a month after the incident after learning from his landlord that the dogs did not have permission to reside on the property.
The agreement signed by Trice would suggest that he intends to keep the dog and adhere to the criteria for maintaining a dangerous animal in Lewis County.
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