Dog-attack victim recovering

Published 8:45 pm Friday, April 17, 2015

As the elderly woman attacked by a dog last week in Beaufort County recovers from her injuries, the dog that attacked her faces euthanasia.

The attack occurred about 5:30 p.m. April 10 at 61 Winchester Drive off Robersonville Highway, according to the Beaufort Count Sheriff’s Office. The woman was airlifted to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, where she reportedly has undergone several surgeries on one of her arms.

Several Internet databases list Sunok H. Smith as a resident at 61 Winchester Drive and give her age as in her early 70s. A Vidant Medical Center spokeswoman said a woman with that name and who is being treated at the hospital was in serious condition Friday.

The dog was identified as a pit bull named Money, whose owner was cited by Beaufort County Animal Control for animal cruelty (not having water in the dog’s cage) and failure to vaccinate the dog. The owner surrendered Money to Animal Control, where the dog is being kept under quarantine. Previously, Animal Control officials said Money, who is 9 months old, broke out of his cage and attacked the woman. Once surrendered, the dog could be put to death after 10 days (not including Saturdays, Sundays or holidays, according to the county’s animal control ordinance.

Attempts to determine when the dog would be put to death were not successful.

Animal cruelty is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor and/or a civil penalty, according to the ordinance modified in September 2013 by a vote of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners. A violation of the ordinance is punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50 or no more than $500. Each day’s violation of the ordinance is considered a separate offense.

The penalty for the first violation of the vaccination requirement of the ordinance carries a $50 penalty. Subsequent violations increase the penalty up to a maximum of $500 for a fifth violation.

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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