
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 4, 1993                   TAG: 9307040159
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

OWNER: DOG WAS CHAINED

Pamela Six, the owner of an Akita that mauled a 9-year-old girl in Vinton Friday, said Saturday the dog was on a 7-foot chain in her back yard when it attacked the girl.

Vinton animal control officer Lisa Wine had indicated the girl was walking along Raleigh Street in Vinton when the attack occurred. Six said that was impossible because the dog was tied to a porch behind her house.

"I'm not saying that the girl provoked him or anything," Six said of her 65-pound dog. "But I put up a sign and did everything I could to prevent something like this. I just feel terrible about it."

Wine confirmed Saturday that the dog was tied behind Six's house and Six and her husband, Steve Six, did have a "Beware of Dog" sign in the window. But those precautions are not enough to prevent Pamela Six from being charged under a Vinton law that prohibits dogs that bite unprovoked, she said.

The child, who suffered bites to the face, shoulder and thigh, will not have to endure rabies shots, because the dog had been vaccinated against the disease, Wine said.

The dog will be held in quarantine at the Roanoke Valley SPCA until a judge decides its fate.

by CNB