April Pittman is 41 years old. Today, she’s struggling with “by far the most painful thing I’ve ever been through.”
Pittman was speaking Thursday morning about an incident that began last week with a superficial dog bite on one hand of her four-year-old daughter from the family pet, who had given birth to puppies just six days earlier.
That “correction bite,” as a licensed animal rescuer termed it, has since resulted in the questionable euthanization of the dog and her four pups, mental anguish for the family, an investigation by the City of Waycross, and an outcry from the rescue advocacy.
Pittman said the eight-year-old dog, a boxer-pitbull mix, “wasn’t a pet. She was a child.”
“I bottle fed her,” Pittman said of the dog, named “Sosa.” “I’ve had her from birth.”
The owner said the litter of puppies born Thursday, September 1, were Sosa’s fifth. Like this one, most had four or five pups. Pittman said there had been some stillborns.
One of the dogs from a previous litter, a male, also lives with the family, she said.
Pittman said the situation began early in the afternoon of Tuesday, September 6 after her daughter, Marley, had gone upstairs in the Garlington Heights home to use the bathroom. Her mother said Marley, despite being warned not to go near the puppies yet, snuck in the room where they were and reached toward one.
Sosa reacted to the intrusion.
“Momma dog was doing what a momma does ... protecting her babies,” Pittman said. “I’ve had that dog for eight years and she’s never been aggressive — ever.”
Candas Bennett, who operates Paws Furever Home in Tifton, a 501C3 non-profit kennel which handles rescue animals, said the reaction was natural and not one of aggression.
“It was a ‘correction bite,’” said Bennett, a licensed rescuer by the State of Georgia since 2016 and involved with rescue organizations for eight years. “That’s more of a warning for protection than an attempt to hurt.”
Bennett would later attempt to become involved with the situation in her capacity as an “emergency rescuer.”
Pittman said she wasn’t so concerned with the bite on her child, but rather a scratch.
“I didn’t know if it was a puncture from teeth or a scratch from a claw,” the mother said.
Because of the uncertainty of the wound, Pittman took her daughter to the emergency room at Memorial Satilla Health for a check.
“The hospital checked everything, cleaned (wound) and sent us home,” Pittman said.
Before that occurred, however, personnel from the city’s Animal Control department came to the hospital to inform Pittman the dog would have to be quarantined for 10 days to make sure it didn’t have rabies for the safety of the child. She said she wasn’t aware of that procedure.
Bennett stated medical personnel are required by state law to inform Animal Control when they treat a dog bite.
Pittman said Animal Control staff arrived at her home to pick up Sosa and the pups before she left the hospital. She said her mother and daughter were at the house and had to load the dogs for transport.
“At this point, she wasn’t agressive,” Pittman said.
Pittman stated later that afternoon, after she and Marley had returned from the hospital, she received a call from Animal Control officer Jamie Knudsen that Sosa was being “extremely agressive.”
“I said she’s a new momma with babies in a new place,” Pittman recalled. “(Knudsen) said we’ll see you in 10 days.”
Pittman said Knudsen called again the following day about Sosa’s aggressiveness. Pittman said she told Knudsen the mother was just being cautious because of the puppies.
On Friday, September 9, Pittman said she received a text message about 8:30 a.m., from the shelter to contact it immediately to come and see Sosa’s behavior. She said personnel placed her where she could see the dog, but not be seen herself.
Pittman said personnel had a stick-like device with a noose on the end used to control animals. She said when they would put it in the kennel, Sosa would grab it with her mouth and shake it.
“They were picking at the dog. That’s why she was being aggressive,” Pittman said.
Pittman asked if she could walk to a point where the dog could see her.
“As soon as I walked around she calmed down,” Pittman said. “I told the woman (Sosa) is just being aggressive because of where she was and the puppies.”
Pittman then said she was told Sosa had bitten two men who worked with the shelter and had eaten two of her puppies. Pittman said she doubted both were true, particularly about the pups because of the dog’s actions when one of the pups in her past litters was stillborn.
“(Sosa) never would go near (stillborn),” Pittman said. “We had to take it when it happened.”
Because of the alleged biting incidents, Pittman said she was told if she didn’t surrender the dog, she would be charged with the bites to the two men.
“I said I’d surrender the dog, but wanted the puppies,” Pittman said. “I was told it was illegal in Georgia to turn over puppies who were less than eight weeks old.”
Pittman was then told a second story about not being able to have the puppies. She said the shelter couldn’t risk the bloodline going to other people.
“They said it was a liability,” Pittman said.
Pittman said she was then told she had three days before any euthanization would take place so she had time to change her mind about keeping Sosa and the puppies.
At 3:30 that afternoon, the shelter called to inform her Sosa had been put down and the check for rabies was negative. Bennett said there was no way that was medically possible given the time frame because rabies detection involves amputation of the animal’s head and study of brain matter by a lab.
Pittman said she asked the shelter why it didn’t wait the 10 days of the quarnatine. She wasn’t given an answer, and her attempts at subsequent calls to the office and even a visit to the shelter were fruitless.
“I went there and they wouldn’t answer the door,” she said.
Thanks to a friend, Pittman said Saturday, September 10 she discovered all four of the puppies had been alive, not just two when she was called to visit the shelter. She said she was sent a screenshot of a social media post the previous day by a technician at the veterinarian facility where the puppies were taken seeking a rescuer to care for the puppies.
A bid to extend the city’s contract with Satilla Animal Hospital for Animal Control services for fiscal year 2022-23 was approved by city commissioners at their June 7 meeting.
“They hid two of the puppies when I was at the shelter,” Pittman said. “I knew (Sosa) wouldn’t harm her babies.”
Before Bennett could secure the puppies for her kennel and Pittman could inquire about their well-being, both discovered they were put down.
Pittman said the episode has taken a severe emotional toll on her family, especially her 17-year-old daughter, Kayla. As dogs often do, Pittman said Sosa had singled out Kayla as “her” family member.
“(Sosa) slept with her every night,” the mother said. “(Kayla) hasn’t been sleeping or eating. I’ve laid in bed with her every night, usually both of us crying.”
Pittman said she’s grateful for the support of the rescue community. Bennett created a Facebook page on Tuesday titled “Justice for the Five” that already has more than 1,000 followers.
It contains a timeline of Bennett’s involvement in the incident. The Journal-Herald has received a host of emails calling attention to the situation, one from West Palm Beach, Fla.
Pittman said she hopes all proper steps would be followed by officials to prevent this from happening again.
“Nobody should have to go through this,” she said, adding if there’s an attorney who would help her pro bono to move through the issue legally, she’d be grateful to hear from them.
