All three victims are recovering from the attack at a Maple Street residence, according to Westfield police. The dog has been quarantined while the city's animal control officer completes an investigation.
WESTFIELD – A pit bull attacked its owner, a 2-year-old girl and a Westfield police officer at a Maple Street residence on Friday, according to authorities, who quarantined the dog as required by state law.
"Dog went nuts," Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe said Monday.
All three victims suffered bites from the 7-year-old male dog, which is being kept at the Westfield Regional Animal Shelter, 178 Apremont Way.
Westfield Police Capt. Michael A. McCabeThe officer was bitten on the arm, the girl was bitten on the hand and the dog's owner was bitten on the thigh, Westfield Animal Control Officer Ken Frazer said. All three were treated at the hospital and later released, officials said.
Frazer said the girl's guardian can request a so-called dangerous-dog hearing to determine the fate of the pit bull, which is not neutered. Depending on the outcome of that hearing, the dog could be euthanized, he said.
Frazer faulted the dog's owner for failing to neuter the animal, which is widely considered to be a basic component of responsible pet ownership. Male dogs that are neutered tend to be less aggressive than those that do not undergo the procedure.
Authorities speculated that the dog may have become jealous when its owner, a woman who was not publicly identified, held the child. The owner was babysitting the little girl at the time of the incident, which occurred Friday morning at 28 Maple St.
"It's not the dog. It's the people that made the dog that way. It's how they train the animal," said Frazer, a 27-year veteran animal control officer.
The dog started acting aggressively, first biting the girl's hand, then the woman's inner thigh, Frazer said. When police arrived, an officer formerly assigned to the department's K-9 unit was bitten on the forearm, Frazer said.
From a legal standpoint, the case is still under investigation. "It's definitely not over," Frazer said.
The Westfield incident comes on the heels of a Jan. 19 incident in Springfield, in which a woman was attacked by her two pit bulls while walking them in the city's Forest Park neighborhood. The dogs suddenly turned on the woman, who suffered bites to her arms, legs and stomach, said Sgt. John M. Delaney, a spokesman for the Springfield Police Department.
THE MAP BELOW shows the approximate location of a Maple Street address where a Westfield police officer, a young girl and a woman were bitten by a pit bull on Friday: