Rottweiler attack sudden and vicious (New York

[Rene Allegrini]

Dog attack victim: It was sudden and vicious


BY ANDREW STRICKLER
andrew.strickler@newsday.com


June 12, 2007, 4:02 PM EDT
The attack was sudden and vicious.

Lying in a West Islip hospital bed Tuesday, his speech muffled by bandages, Joe Mortensen described how three unleashed Rottweilers attacked his pit bull mix, Emry, forcing him to jump into the fight to rescue her.


"When you see something like that happening to your dog, you just try to save her," he said. "The dog probably would have done the same for me."

Mortensen, 22, was walking his female pit bull mix on a leash with a family friend in a Long Island Power Authority right-of-way just outside his Dix Hills home Sunday when three dogs owned by a neighbor unexpectedly attacked.

As the Rottweilers tore at Emry's body and legs, Mortensen said, he jumped into the snarling pack and the dogs turned their fury on him.

Mortensen's right ear was partially ripped from his head in the attack, and he suffered a torn lip and other bites. Mortensen's friend, Christopher Green of Ronkonkoma, was bitten on the hand.

Mortensen underwent emergency reconstructive surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip and expects to have further surgeries to repair the extensive damage to his face.

"They wanted to get to my dog and I wouldn't let that happen. But they got to her," he said.

Huntington Town Animal Control issued three summonses to James Mazzone, who lives downstairs from Mortensen at 800 Deer Park Road, for having unregistered dogs. Officials said they did not have the authority to seize the dogs without a judge's order. Tuesday, one of the Rottweilers was in an enclosed kennel in the back yard, and a neighbor said the other two were inside Mazzone's house.

Mortensen's mother, Kathleen Neiderman of Smithtown, said Emry survived several bites to the legs and torso in the attack and was expected to recover.

http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-li...,1701544.story