A Peachtree City family is warning path users about a “large black lab-like dog” that attacked their family dog, Patches, on the cart path near the Waterford Green subdivision last week.
Kevin Ellis said Patches needed over 37 stitches to close a dinner plate-sized wound on his side. The dog that attacked Patches was on a leash, but lunged forward with such force that it knocked its owner to the ground and got loose, he said.
“If a dog could do this while on a leash with its owner, I seriously do not believe it should be in an area where there are so many children,” Ellis said. “… Thankfully my son was on our golf cart because the attack was so vicious that he could have easily been killed.”
Patches was walking on a leash while Nancy Ellis and 2-year-old Joshua were on a golf cart when the attack occurred Feb. 22 around 1 p.m. on the path next to the pond by Waterford Green, just behind Kensington Drive.
Ellis printed and posted flyers in the area to warn others of the attack so they will use caution, particularly with children on the paths.
On the flyers, Ellis urges other path users to call him or the police department with information on the attacking dog’s owner. The owner was described as a middle-aged woman with shoulder length dark hair.
While that isn’t much to go on, other path users in the area have told Ellis they also have had “run-ins” with a “large, mean black dog in the area.”
“What really started gnawing at me is: what if I’m out there with the kids and our fishing poles, and the dogs got into it and the kids were in the middle of it?” Ellis said.
Ellis noted that someone took down his flyers, but he put them back up.
Peachtree City police have taken a report on the case, Ellis said, and he is hopeful the owner can be identified so the issue can be dealt with. Ellis was very complimentary of the police response, noting that an officer who happened to be in the area at the time was on the scene within a minute.
Police were also very responsive to the family’s concerns, he added.
Patches ended up spending the night at the Braelinn Animal Hospital after surgery, but the family is thankful he will recover, Ellis said.
