PORTLAND, Ore. — The unleashed pit bull that attacked a Southeast Portland runner last week is suspected of viciously attacking another dog in February, Multnomah County officials said.
After seeing KGW’s story, Kara Bloom of Southeast Portland said the same pit bull attacked her 17-pound dog, Rocky, during an early morning walk on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023 between Southeast Clinton Street and 27th Avenue.
Multnomah County Animal Services said it is still looking for the dog and its owner, Jessie Miller, who is homeless.
“I just couldn't believe it. It was crazy," said Bloom.
Bloom said she and her two dogs were on their normal morning walk. That’s when she saw an unleashed dog, now identified as a pit bull mix named “Bubbie,” run up to a bicyclist before attacking her dog Rocky.
"We were going eastbound on Clinton here and I heard something," said Bloom. "So I kind of stopped and a dog ran down the street (toward) a bike rider."
Bloom said she saw what appeared to be the dog owner, Miller, run after Bubbie. Bloom thought Bubbie was put back on a leash — but that's not what happened.
A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured the entire attack. In the video, you can hear someone calling for their dog before it attacks Rocky.
"I looked down and this dog was over my dog and immediately grabbed him from the top and started digging into him," described Bloom.
The dog bit down into Rocky's rib cage, ultimately puncturing his lung and sending him into emergency surgery. The medical bill was over $3,200, said Bloom.
"He had to have surgery on both sides to see how in-depth the injuries were," she said.
After taking Rocky to his surgery, Bloom confronted Miller in his white van parked in the area the attack happened. She took a video and posted it on Facebook showing Bubbie inside the van, and who appears to be Miller outside the vehicle.
"I would say that the emotional scars for both of us have been taken much longer to heal,” said Bloom. “You know, I'm still scared every morning.”
In response, Multnomah County Animal Services has changed its policies on bite quarantine procedures. The pit bull, Bubbie, was released to Miller's mother for a routine 10-day quarantine, but Miller took the dog without permission and has not been located since last week's attack.
Under the new guidelines, pets will not be eligible for home quarantine if it was loose when the bite happened or the severity of the bite was a 3.5 or above on the Ian Dunbar severity scale, if the pet was previously labeled as a "potentially dangerous dog," and if rabies vaccination is not current at the time of bite or if the owner doesn't live within Multnomah County.
Before this change, the policy since 2016 states that when a bite report comes in, the dog in question needs to be quarantined for 10 days to determine if they had rabies when they bit the person.
Rabies is an infectious disease that can be transmitted by a bite or saliva from a rabid animal. If the dog can’t be safely quarantined in the community, it must be quarantined at the Troutdale animal shelter.