A Multnomah County hearings officer has ordered that Jessie Miller should completely quit his pit bull combine Bubbie after designating the canine harmful for mauling a runner in Southeast Portland in April, lower than two months after he attacked another dog.
The order this month adopted a three-hour enchantment listening to the place Miller known as the canine his “best friend,” and a wise animal who finds methods to get off leash. At the identical listening to, the girl who was mauled unwrapped protecting coverings on her proper arm and legs to point out the hearings officer and Miller her lasting scars from the assault.
Cheryl Wakerhauser, who was assaulted as she was operating alongside Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard on April 17, and Kara Bloom, whose poodle Rocky underwent surgical procedure after it was maimed by Bubbie in February each testified, as did Miller, his mom and a pal.
Hearings Officer Tony Schwartz dominated that Miller failed to manage his canine, permitting it to run off leash, and that suspending his possession was the one treatment for group security.
“Bubbie clearly and obviously, while at large, caused severe physical injury to another human and physical injury to another canine,” Schwartz wrote. “The inability of Mr. Miller to control Bubbie, paired with Bubbie’s aggression and Bubbie’s on-going ability to escape from leash-control suggest that any alternative to Suspension of Ownership would not result in a workable scenario for anyone involved.”
The listening to resulted from Miller’s enchantment of the county animal service’s May 1 designation of his canine as harmful.
The county had briefly taken the canine into custody after Wakerhauser’s assault however launched it to Miller’s mom a day later. Within a day, nevertheless, Miller had retrieved his canine and it remained on the road till a warrant was signed for its seizure and it was discovered on May 6, in accordance with county data.
Wakerhauser’s case prompted the county animal shelter to change its quarantine policy and require all animals that severely chew an individual to stay in quarantine for 10 days on the Troutdale facility.
Miller attended the July enchantment listening to with out a lawyer and requested for it to be postponed. Schwartz declined to take action, noting Miller had greater than two months to organize and discover a lawyer and that he hadn’t sought a postponement earlier.
Further, different witnesses had been current and the canine had been in county custody since May 6 so a decision was wanted, the officer stated.
The listening to marked the primary time Miller has spoken publicly about his canine. Bubbie is about 18 months previous, and Miller has had the canine because it was a puppy, he stated.
Swiveling in a chair earlier than the hearings officer, Miller, who lives in a van on the road, acknowledged he wasn’t current when the canine attacked Wakerhauser.
Miller stated he was sick and vomiting and allowed his pal to take the canine for a walk, he stated. The pal let the canine run off leash in a vacant, fenced-off property alongside Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.
Miller steered that Wakerhauser should have finished one thing to agitate his canine, fallen or presumably slapped it. He questioned if Bubbie was making an attempt to “kiss” the runner.
“Maybe she freaked him out…I don’t believe that he would’ve mauled her. He might have got scared,” Miller stated. “I’m super sorry about what happened…He’s a wonderful pup. He’s a great dog.”
If he was vicious, he argued, the county wouldn’t have launched him to his mom a day later.
Wakerhauser made it clear that she was operating by the vacant property at 4511 Southeast Hawthorne Blvd. when she felt one thing strike her from behind and he or she ended up on the bottom.
“I felt like there was something grabbing me. The next thing I knew I was on the ground on my back, and a dog was biting my leg,” she stated. “It just keep biting me and biting me over and over again.’’
Her voice tinged with emotion, she explained how she kept yelling at the “top of my lungs,” for assist, “and no one was coming.”
“The dog just continued biting me and biting me like I was a piece of meat,” she stated.
Asked by the hearings officer if she did something to impress the canine, she stated no, that it got here at her from behind. “I was on the ground and it was eating my legs,” she stated.
It wasn’t till Wakerhauser caught the attention of a motorist, who rotated and pulled up close by, repeatedly honking her horn, that one other man holding a leash walked up, advised her it wasn’t his canine however grabbed Bubbie and walked away with the canine. The motorist then bought out to attempt to assist Wakerhauser, and police and firefighters responded to her 911 name.
Multnomah County Animal Control Officer Megan Schiewe, who was known as out to the scene, testified that when she arrived, the canine was behind a Portland police automotive, and the person who had grabbed the canine ran off and was chased by police. Police had recognized him as Theron D. Bates.
Bates had swallowed fentanyl and was taken to a neighborhood hospital, she stated. Miller and his mom additionally arrived, and he or she advised them that the canine must be impounded to start out a 10-day quarantine. Miller stated he was dwelling on the road, didn’t have a cellphone and was not watching his canine on the time of the assault, she stated.
The subsequent day, Marcie Miller, Miller’s mother, was allowed to take the canine out of the shelter to her home in Washington state to quarantine there, Schiewe confirmed. But inside 24 hours, the canine was not at Marci Miller’s home, and Jessie Miller had retrieved it.
“I was informed that Jessie came by while she was not home and took the dog out of her house, and she did not know where he was at that time,” Schiewe stated.
Marcie Miller disputed Schiewe’s account of the chain of occasions. She stated a day after she took the canine to her home in Camas, she stated she bought a name from Schiewe, who advised her, “I messed up,” and stated she wanted to take Bubbie again into custody, Marcie Miller stated.
Marcie Miller stated she took the canine to stick with a pal of her son’s, and her son grabbed the canine from the pal’s home.
“We love our dog, and we don’t want him put to sleep,” Marcie Miller stated. “He might have made a mistake, but he doesn’t deserve to die. I think he deserves a chance.”
Bloom testified that her canine Rocky was attacked by Bubbie throughout their morning walk about 10 weeks earlier, on Feb. 3, after she had seen Bubbie chase after a bicyclist. Bloom noticed two individuals run after Bubbie and thought they’d put the canine on a leash so she continued walking along with her personal dogs alongside Southeast Clinton Street, between twenty sixth and twenty seventh avenues.
“The next thing I knew this dog was standing over my dog and began attacking him,” Bloom stated. “He just jumped over the top of his spine, bit down onto his rib cage on both sides.”
Bubbie punctured Rocky’s lung, and the poodle required surgical procedure.
Bloom confirmed the listening to officer pictures of the sutures to Rocky’s stomach, and her veterinarian invoice of $3399.38 with a follow-up go to that cost about $125. While Rocky was nonetheless hospitalized, Bloom confronted Miller in a van parked in her neighborhood, she stated. He grabbed his canine and walked off, and he or she tried to warn neighbors in regards to the canine, Bloom stated.
“Mr. Miller’s conduct, on April 17, 2023, in allowing a friend to walk Bubbie unleashed — where Bubbie had previously chased a bicyclist and attacked Rocky on February 3, 2023 while off leash — was careless, inadvertent and/or negligent,” the hearings officer concluded.
The hearings officer ordered Miller to pay Bloom $3,425.43 in restitution for Rocky’s medical bills. Wakerhauser was given till Jan. 11 to submit her whole medical prices.
Miller has the best to enchantment the hearings officer’s order and problem the restitution.
Bubbie stays in protecting custody in a safety kennel at Multnomah County Animal Services till Miller’s enchantment interval has handed, in accordance with the county. The county gained’t transfer to euthanize the canine till Miller’s enchantment interval – no less than 20 days from his discover of the Aug. 11 order – has handed, in accordance with the county.
Wakerhauser, who reviewed the county’s report on its response to her canine assault, stated the county by no means ought to have launched the canine again to Miller’s mom. She stated she additionally believes the county didn’t take motion when Bloom reported the assault on her poodle and made follow-up calls to the county animal management workplace in regards to the location of Miller’s van.
County Animal Control Officer Nathan Leaven stated on the listening to he went out 4 instances to attempt to find Miller’s van based mostly on Bloom’s experiences however stated he “kept missing him.”
Wakerhauser stated she now wears silicone bandages over her proper arm and legs as much as 23 hours a day, having been advised they could assist scale back the scarring over time. She stated she nonetheless feels tingling, a numbing sensation and “shocks of pain” in her arm.
She stated she’s resumed her morning runs, however each time she spots a canine off leash, she stops, crosses the road and heads the wrong way.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email [email protected]; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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