Carol writes in…
On November 9 at around 11:30 a.m. my dogs and I were attacked by a stray dog in Decatur (DeKalb County). I am writing in the hopes that I can somehow try to find the man who rescued me from this dog. I didn’t get the chance to thank him and I feel he was extremely brave. In addition, I am wondering if he found out who the dog belonged to because now I am told I must get rabies shots unless I can find the owner.The incident happened in front of North DeKalb Cleaners at 3823 N. Druid Hills Road. There were other guardian angels looking out for me — a lovely woman and her daughter gave us a ride home (my bloodied dog, my other dog, and me). I didn’t get any names and would desperately like to reach out and thank these people!Thank you for any assistance or ideas you can give me to help locate them.
Carol says she believes the man who came to their aid, saved her dog’s life. She can be contacted at .
There have been several sightings of stray dogs, pit bulls w/out collars, around N. Dekalb mall. What can be done about the stray dogs when people are afraid to wrangle them? I will put a small stray in my car, but I can’t risk my life to grab a pit bull with no collar. I am so glad the writer is OK, this is absolutely my worst fear.
Call Dekalb Animal Control. That is why they exist.
I actually did call animal control on one occasion in the past several months. The response was that they were unable to make it out, until PROBABLY THE NEXT DAY. No b.s. on that. When I was bitten by a stray that I picked up, they were supposed to come and take a report in person, after multiple calls they finally reluctantly agreed to take a report over the phone which they weren’t interested in doing, but I demanded it since I needed proof to give to my insurance about the bite after being treated.
This is Carol, from the original post. I was able to find the person that pulled the attacking dog off of my dog! He is quite a hero in my eyes. I am sad to hear that Animal Control is not very helpful as I have to contact them tomorrow. When I called them yesterday they said they had no reports of dogs being brought in on Sunday, but the man that rescued us told me he stayed with the dog until Animal Control came. No collar, no tags. I swear there are so many people out there who don’t deserve to have dogs!
I would still love to be able to thank the woman and her daughter who drove us home. If you’re out there, you are amazing people!
Animal Control in DeKalb and Fulton are under new management so things should be better now. Pit bulls can be wonderful family dogs, but too many of them end up in the wrong hands and learn bad behavior. Probably 30 a day land in the county shelter due to irresponsible owners.
So far Animal Control has not been responsive. Apparently there is only ONE person who can help me and she is not in the office and only works through Thursday. So if I can’t get hold of her then it will be Monday before they might help me, which is 9 days after the incident. The folks at the actual shelter have not been helpful at all; we have been down there twice. VERY FRUSTRATING.
Have you spoken to the county health department about whether you were potentially exposed to rabies? If you were, then they may help locate the animal. If not, then you can be reassured about the risk.
Thank you very much for the suggestion, I will call them now.
I did get a positive response from Animal Control just now.
I would get the rabies shots even if you do find the owner. Better safe than sorry.
I hope everything turns out OK. To add some valuable information: We are active in canine rescue. The shelters are now under control of the Lifeline Project and they have made massive improvements in the euthanasia rate. Honestly, I don’t know how much they have do with the actual animal control officers. Last year we had a chance to speak with one officer in a fairly casual setting and at length. He indicated there was a woeful shortage of officers. He in fact, said he had responsibility for most of DeKalb County during a Saturday shift by himself. Seemed to be a really good guy who understood his job was more than picking up stray pit bulls.
Greg, thank you so much for the additional perspective. I have adopted a dog of my own from the shelter and I do know how hard they work there. The lack of officers doesn’t surprise me and I feel for them. I actually did end up getting a great response from animal control — they sent an officer out last night to my house and they have put the dog in quarantine.