PA: Another victim of doctor's dogs

Another victim of doctor's dogs
This time, ear of 3-year-old was severed
By JASON NARK
Philadelphia Daily News
narkj@phillynews.com 856-779-3231

You can apparently teach an orthopedic surgeon how to become a goat farmer, but you can't teach his old dogs new tricks.

A few months after a Camden County Superior Court judge ruled that one of Dr. Robert Taffet's Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Rocky, was "defending itself" when it bit a cardiologist in the affluent borough of Haddonfield, Taffet bought a farm for $829,400 in Alloway Township, Salem County.

Rocky's case wasn't the first time that Taffet's Ridgebacks - bred to hunt lions in Africa - had landed him in court, but he and wife, Michele, hoped it was the last.

"We're looking forward to going on with our lives, hopefully peacefully," Taffet told the Daily News in February, after leaving the courthouse.  Taffet told a Salem County newspaper that he planned to raise goats for their meat on his 143-acre farm.  But a peaceful life on the farm ended for Taffet on Nov. 18, when he found himself holding a little girl's bloody, severed ear.

Cindi McVeigh, of Pennsville, Salem County, said that she had no idea that any of the Ridgebacks had ever bitten anyone when she visited the Taffets' farm that evening.  She said that her 3-year-old daughter, Claire, and her 4-year-old son, Patrick, were in a barn there with Taffet and his daughter. Then she heard screaming.

"Claire fell on the ground in the barn and, as she was getting up, made eye contact with Duke. The dog then attacked her, ripping her ear off completely," McVeigh said in an e-mail.

According to McVeigh, Taffet handed the ear to EMTs when they arrived at the home. It took several surgeries and a week in the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children near Wilmington, Del., to reattach the ear, McVeigh said, and Claire will require more operations as she grows older.

New Jersey State Police said that no charges had been filed. A local animal-control officer said that he was awaiting word from the McVeighs before he took action against Duke, one of several adult Ridgebacks that McVeigh said were at the farm.

Taffet and his attorney declined to comment about the incident. McVeigh's attorney, John Brinkmann, said that the doctor had declined to disclose his dogs' history to McVeigh.  "It just seems odd that for whatever reason, the owner felt confident enough to say, 'Don't worry, the dog is friendly,' " he said. "If [McVeigh] had an idea about the dogs, she never would have put the child down."

Susanne LaFrankie Principato, a neighbor of the Taffets in Haddonfield, and who claims that her family was terrorized by the dogs, said that she was not surprised by the attack but only that the culprit wasn't Rocky.  "I'm outraged," the former 6ABC reporter said. "This is exactly what I wanted to prevent - another child from getting bitten."

Before Nov. 18, Rocky had been the Taffet's most notorious Ridgeback. Taffet owns at least three others.

In 2002, Dr. Michael Harkins said that Rocky and another Ridgeback, the late Pluto, pinned down his golden retriever in a Haddonfield park. When Harkins tried to intervene, he was bitten so badly he required 30 stitches. In 2004, Rocky allegedly left puncture wounds in the shoulder of a 14-year-old girl who had been in the Taffet home.

There were also reports that Rocky had bitten one of the Taffets' own children and a boy at a Haddonfield Little League game in 2003, said Mario Iavicoli, Haddonfield's solicitor.

The stream of complaints led a Haddonfield municipal judge to label Rocky as "potentially dangerous," which meant that the dog would have to wear a muzzle in public. The Taffets appealed and in February, Superior Court Judge John T. McNeil reversed the initial "potentially dangerous" decision, claiming that Harkins had "overreacted" and provoked the Ridgebacks.

The ruling baffled Haddonfield officials, and the borough immediately filed an appeal that will be heard in Trenton next month.  "He should be doing these things voluntarily, not fighting them," Iavicoli said. "He has to protect the public from his animals."

Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/79966212.html

PA: Chihuahua Thieves Strike Delco Pet Store

Chihuahua Thieves Strike Delco Pet Store
by KYW's Dave Madden

The search is on for whoever stole a rather valuable dog from a Delaware County pet store.  It’s the third dog in about a year to be plucked from We Love Pets on Baltimore Pike in Springfield.

Springfield township police say the weekend theft of a $1,400 Chihuahua is not related to last Jaunary’s theft of a black pug and a maltipom.

Lt. William Clark says two white men walked into the store and left quickly:  "The clerk looked and found that a Chihuahua was missing from the cage in the store. They believe that the two actors left in a silver Ford with an unknown Pennsylvania registration."

The owner of the store has not returned calls seeking comment about the thefts.

Source

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Duo Steals Dog From Pet Store

By CINDY SCHARR, cscharr@delcotimes.com

SPRINGFIELD — A dognapper made off with $1,400 Chihuahua from the We Love Pets Store in the Stoney Creek Shopping Center Saturday.  The dognapping is the second this year at the pet store, located in the 400 block of Baltimore Pike.

According to police a white man, in his early 20s walked into the pet store around 11:37 a.m. and stood next to a display cage. He scooped up the light-gray Chihuahua, ran out of the store and jumped into a silver pickup truck operated by another man. The dog napping duo fled from the parking lot in an unknown direction.

Both suspects are in their early 20’s and were wearing dark hoodies. In January, a pair walked out of the same pet shop with two puppies, a pug and a Maltipom, valued at $1,000 each.

Anyone who has information about the incident is urged to contact Detective James Devaney at 610-544-1100.

Source

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Update: Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Delco Pet Store Gets Back Pricey Stolen Pup

by KYW's David Madden

A primo priced pup purloined from a Delaware County pet shop last week is back in its cage - none the worse for the experience - but the thief is still being sought.

The $1400 Chihuahua was plucked from a cage at We Love Pets on Baltimore Pike in Springfield on the 19th.  Then, Springfield police lt. William Clark says, the store got a gift on the day after Christmas:

“The pet store received a phone call from a female who said that the dog is by their back door in a box. The employees went out and found the dog. The dog appeared to be in good shape and not abused.”

Cops have a surveillance photo of a suspect and are trying to track him down. The store owner isn’t talking.  Then again, he’s had 3 high-priced pooches stolen this year and two of them were not recovered, nor has anyone been charged.

Source: http://www.kyw1060.com/Delco-Pet-Store-Gets-Back-Pricey-Stolen-Pup/5994523