BITE092907

Pit bull attacks New Brighton man; Rottweiler attack victim gets surgery

A New Brighton man is recovering from injuries sustained when he was attacked and bitten by a pit bull early this morning, police said.

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune

Last update: September 28, 2007 - 10:31 AM

A New Brighton man is recovering from injuries sustained when he was attacked and bitten by a pit bull early this morning, police said.

The man, 73, had his dog out on the lawn of his home on the 7200 block of Mississippi Street at 2 a.m. when a pit bull ran from a house across the street attacked it. The pit bull bit the man as he tried to separate the dogs, said John Ellickson, deputy director of public safety for the City of New Brighton.

The dog bit the man in the arm and the back, but he did not require hospitalization, Ellickson said.

The pit bull was quarantined.

Ellickson said the people across the street from the man who was bitten don't own the pit bull. They were apparently babysitting it and another dog. They were cited for failing to keep the dogs restrained.

The attack is the second in the Twin Cities within a week involving a dog left in the care of a non-owner. Last week, Linda Farnell was attacked by a Rottweiler outside the south Minneapolis school where she teaches.

Authorities have not determined who owned the Rottweiler that bit Farnell in the left arm as she was walking toward the front door of Richard Green Central Park School at 3614 4th Av. S. Two women who were with the leashed dog helped pull the Rottweiler off of Farnell after the attack, but they apparently are not the dog's owner. The women who live in a four-plex near the school inherited the dog after Rottweiler's owner moved out and left it behind.

Farnell underwent surgery for her injuries. Doctors removed the skin from her elbow to her wrist and replaced it with skin grafts on Monday.

No one has been arrested.

Tim Harlow • harlow@startribune.com