Boy, 5, Uses Classroom Lesson to Protect Himself From Dog Attack
www.thederrick.com
April 30, 3005, DEMPSEYTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA -- When Becky Doverspike created the phrase, "When you see a vicious dog, be a tree, be a log," she never thought it would save someone's life.
Doverspike is on the board of directors of the Venango County Humane Society, and she works with humane education at schools and preschools in the area. She and her husband, Dr. Sam Doverspike of the Franklin Animal Clinic, take their black lab, Max, to schools to meet children and teach them the best way to handle animals.
The children learn how to approach dogs, and when not to approach them. They are also taught to cover their head and necks in the event of an animal attack.
The Doverspikes put on a presentation a month ago at the YWCA Twin Creeks Head Start in Rocky Grove. "We never really know how much the kids actually absorb, when we go to the schools, especially at such a young age," Becky Doverspike said.
But while they were in Rocky Grove, Zachary Smith, 5, paid attention. About two weeks after the Doverspikes visited Rocky Grove Head Start, Zachary was attacked by his grandmother's dog at her farm in Dempseytown.
Zachary's mother, Michelle Rankin, said the family has never had any problems with Sebastian, a 12-year-old German shepherd/husky mix before the April 15 incident.
Zachary was playing in the front yard near the dog, which was chained to the barn. Rankin and her mother were inside watching him through the kitchen window. "All of a sudden my mom said, 'where's Zack?' but I didn't think much of it," Rankin said.
When they went outside to check, Zachary was down on the ground in the fetal position with his hands protecting his neck, and Sebastian was on top of him with his mouth wrapped around Zachary's head.
Zachary's grandmother pulled the dog off the boy, and the two women took him to the hospital. "He had a whole the size of a quarter in his neck and teeth marks all over his head," Rankin said. "He was going into shock because he lost so much blood, but the whole way to the hospital he just kept saying, 'I kept still like they said,' Rankin recalled."
After a CAT scan at UPMC Northwest, doctors decided to send Zachary to Pittsburgh because there was air in his neck and they feared he had internal bleeding, Rankin said.
Doctors at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh praised Zachary for keeping calm during the attack, Rankin said. "They said the teeth marks just missed his exterior jugular vein," Rankin said.
Zachary is now back in school on limited recess, and he seems to be recovering quickly. He is not afraid of his family's two dogs, an Australian shepherd puppy and a three-year-old lab mix.
"He's perfectly fine around the dogs, but I'm so worried now," Rankin said.
"I get nervous when they get too close to his face, I mean you could have the most perfect dog and it could just turn on you."
Sebastian has been quarantined until he can be euthanized at the humane society.
Zachary told his mother he wanted to see the dog one last time to confront him. Zachary reprimanded the dog saying, "Sebastian, you're bad. You shouldn't hurt little kids. Look what you did to me."
He will have several more appointments with doctors at UPMC Northwest so they can monitor his healing process and keep an eye on the 13 stitches in his neck, but "he is doing just great," Rankin said.
This is the first time Doverspike offered the program at a pre-school level. "We do programs at most of the local elementary schools, but we just don't have enough volunteers to do it at all the head starts," she said. The program is presented to about 1,000 kids each year in Venango County.
"I never really knew that any of the kids retained what we told them, and it just makes you feel great to know that it's really helping," Doverspike said.
Wendy Steigerwald, a teacher at the Rocky Grove head start, decided to bring in the presentation for her class. "I didn't know this was going to happen, never thought it would save someone's life. I just thought it was important that they would know what to do," Steigerwald said.
Steigerwald now plans on making the presentation a part of all of her classes. "If they would have waited to have the presentation in kindergarten, it would have been too late," Rankin said. "This program saved my son's life."
