A new family pet attacked and fatally injured a 7-year-old girl in Fruita on Saturday night, according to police.
Donald Page, the family’s landlord for the past year, cried as he described the incident Sunday.
“She was such a loving child,” he said, rummaging around for a card the girl made him on Friday. “It says here, ‘Happy Friends Day to Don. I love you. By Kate-Lynn.”‘
Page was indoors Saturday evening when a girl he identified as Kate-Lynn Logel and her mother, Shellamina Logel, were in the back with the family’s two new dogs.
A family in DeBeque gave the Logels two Alaskan malamutes about three weeks ago. The dogs had played with children before, he said, and were good dogs.
“Shelly went on in to go to the bathroom, and when she went back to the back door, she saw Ice, the male dog, with blood on his face. She panicked and thought the dog got hurt, and she called me,” said Page, who rents two rooms in his three-bedroom home to the Logel family.
When the two stepped into the backyard, they saw Kate-Lynn on the ground.
“The dog had bit her on … both sides of the neck,” Page said. “She bled to death. … There just was no blood left in her.”
Kate-Lynn died of her wounds at St. Mary’s Hospital in nearby Grand Junction on Saturday evening.
Fruita police would not confirm the names of the victim or her family, nor discuss the case in detail, saying it is still under investigation. Officials with St. Mary’s Hospital, citing federal privacy regulations, declined to release information.
An autopsy was expected to be conducted Sunday, but Fruita police said they would not release details until later this week.
Kate-Lynn attended Fruita’s Shelledy Elementary School, Page said.
Both Ice and his female companion, another malamute named Timber, were euthanized Saturday night, he said.
It’s “extraordinarily rare” for dog attacks to be fatal, said Jason Haukoos, attending physician in Denver Health Medical Center’s emergency room.
In seven years as a doctor, he said he’s seen thousands of dog- bite victims.
“You’ll see pretty bad things, kids pretty mangled with puncture wounds or lacerations,” he said. “But in my career, I have never seen a fatality.”
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-820-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
Dog maulings
Other recent dog attacks in Colorado:
February, Aurora: Police shot and killed a pit bull that charged at officer John Albergotti and clamped onto his arm. After the first shot, the dog tightened its grip; it took a second shot to dislodge it.
October 2004, Westminster: A 6-year-old boy was attacked in the face by a pit bull owned by visiting family friends. The boy needed plastic surgery and skin grafts.
September 2004, Aurora: A pit bull that escaped from a nearby house attacked a 3-year-old girl, nearly killing her. A neighbor kicked the dog in the face to save the girl, who had a fractured skull and required 51 stitches.
August 2004, near Loveland: A 73-year-old woman tried to shoo a pit bull from traffic and was badly bitten in the leg and face.
July 2004, Denver Tech Center: Police killed a mastiff-mix dog that mauled a 7-year-old girl, biting her face, neck, back and shoulders.
November 2003, Elbert County: Three pit bulls broke through a fence and fatally mauled Jennifer Brooke, 40. The owner of the pit bulls, Jacqueline McCuen, 33, was sentenced to six years in prison, and the dogs were killed.
DENVER POST STAFF
