Florence woman seeks info on unleashed dog attack 

NORTHAMPTON — Someone knows the dog that attacked Omar.

Sheena See was out with her 10-year-old papillon, Omar, on Saturday afternoon behind a friend’s property on Spring Street at the Saw Mill Hills Conservation Area. Unleashed, Omar wasn’t far away from her when See said she saw three people cross-country skiing with three other unleashed dogs.

Two of the dogs — one a beagle mix, the other a chocolate pitbull — ran up to Omar and started sniffing, See said. Then See noticed a third dog, what she said appeared to be a German shepherd and yellow lab mix, being held back by one of the skiers.

See said she didn’t think anything of the third dog being restrained, but then it got loose and “went straight for Omar like a bullet,” she said. She said the dog picked up Omar with its teeth and shook him.

Acting on instinct, See said she grabbed the attacking dog by its collar and Omar was able to get loose.

“Everyone was screaming,” See recalled.

Concerned about Omar’s injuries and wanting to get him to the hospital immediately, See scooped up her dog and rushed off. She said the other dogs owners didn’t follow her and she never got their information. A city ordinance requires that “all dogs be leashed and prohibits them from running free on the property of others without permission.”

“It seems like there was a few things they could have done,” she said, of avenues the dog owners could have taken to report the incident themselves.

Because See doesn’t know the dog that bit Omar, she doesn’t know if that dog was up-to-date on its rabies vaccinations. She said Omar is and he received a booster when he was at the veterinary hospital. Even so, Omar is under quarantine until Feb. 15. The Gazette reviewed Omar’s quarantine order from the city’s animal control officer, which verifies Omar’s vaccinations.

The quarantine order means Omar can only go out in See’s backyard on a leash and he is only allowed to be around See and her husband. See faces a $500 fine and the prospect of Omar completing his quarantine elsewhere if she does not comply with those conditions.

“If they came forward, both of our dogs would only have to be in quarantine for 10 days,” she said. “It just makes me kind of sad they aren’t willing to take any responsibility. I want them to know what happened to Omar.”

At the veterinary hospital, Omar had to have x-rays to make sure his abdomen hadn’t been punctured before doctors “had to surgically put him back together again,” See said.

Almost a week removed from the incident, Omar has had one of the two drains put in near his hips removed and he’s recovering.

“Of course he’s really unhappy and so am I. To see him lying there is really depressing,” See said.

Even if Omar had been on a leash, See said she believes he still would have been attacked.

See has posted about the incident on her Facebook page a few times. The first post was shared 200 times while the second has been shared over 960 times and was even shared by Hamp Scanner, a privately owned page that provides information about incidents in and around the Northampton area.

In sharing the incident, See also sees it as a plea for everyone to train their dogs better.

“I’m so happy my dog is alive. I’m so lucky,” she said. “I want to move forward, but I’m just so frustrated and so wish these people would say something or do something.”