Four children injured in a El Paso County dog attack are recovering, with one sent home from a hospital on Saturday night, Jackie Kirby, El Paso County Sheriff’s spokeswoman, said Sunday.
Three other children needed surgery, and two of them are expected to be released on Sunday. “We don’t know when the one other will be released,” Kirby said.
The sheriff’s office has issued a summons to the owner of the three Great Danes that attacked the children on Saturday. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, faces a misdemeanor charge of unlawful ownership of a dangerous dog, Kirby said. “The dogs have been taken by the Humane Society,” she added.
The owner has 10 days to pay the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region the cost of caring for the animals, and if he doesn’t he must relinquish the dogs to the organization, said Gretchen Pressley, Humane Society spokeswoman.
The Humane Society will keep the dogs until court proceedings in the case are finished, Pressley said.
“In cases of dangerous animal charges, the court normally orders humane euthanization,” Pressley said.
The dogs attacked the children in Rush, a small town at the east end of El Paso County, when a woman brought her five children with her to look at the dogs that belong to her boss.
When she came out, she heard screaming and found that four of her children had been mauled by three of the dogs. Kirby said the children had been bitten around the head and torso, and possibly on their extremities.
The identities of the woman and her children have not been released.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or @dpmcghee
