CHILD MAULED BY DOG

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Carson Furr, 4, was recently attacked by two neighborhood dogs while playing near his home.

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July 10, 2009

By Dexter Hinson, Staff Writer The Stanly News & Press Fri Jul 10, 2009, 09:53 AM EDT

Thursday, July 9, 2009 — Carson Furr is your typical 4-year-old child: joyful, playful and energetic. While playing outside as he so often does in his neighborhood, he became the victim in an attack by dogs he’d played with on many happier occasions.

On the evening of July 6 around 6 p.m. after returning from a birthday party, Carson went to play near the front yard of his home - a large area in which he plays “all the time” according to his mother, Christy Furr. He was headed to a horse shoe pit near a neighbor’s home when Carson was knocked down by two of the neighbor’s dogs.

“First the black dog came. It scared me a little bit,” Carson recollected as if the event had just occurred.

“I didn’t know the dogs were coming after me.”

Even knowing the names of the dogs that he’d petted numerous times didn’t seem to matter at this point, as the dogs bit the child in many places all over his tiny frame, including his head, near both ears, his arms and the inner portion of his legs. It was a sight that one eye witness referred to as “a tug of war” between the two dogs.

Neighbors nearby heard the child screaming and saw him laying face down on the groumd. He then stood up on his own and was carried away to safety by two neighborhood men.

Soon after a 911 call was made, Dean Lambert, an officer with Stanly County Animal Control and two sheriff’s deputies were the first to arrive on the scene, where they learned that the dogs had bitten the child and a 26-year-old man, named as his mother’s boyfriend.

After being taken to the hospital and going under nearly two hours of emergency surgery, Carson’s father Thomas Dunevant recalled the many stitches his son had to have during the procedure, and how one of the doctor stated the he “stopped counting after identifying 55 wounds.”

“The hospital was fantastic,” Dunevant said, highlighting the fast response received once arriving at Stanly Regional Medical Center.

‘They said he was lucky to be alive,” Dunevant continued.

Of all the cuts, scrapes and bruises the child endured, it is a shared belief between the medical staff and family that landing on his face may have saved Carson’s life, deterring the dogs further away from his neck.

The dogs in question were both boxer mixes that are currently being held by Animal Control under a 10-day quarantine stipulation.

The dogs were willingly released by their owner, named as Darryl Helms, who is likely not to reclaim them for reasons based around expense.

The child’s mother raises questions when it comes to what can be done legally.

“The police said that we could not press charges despite the leash law and that no assault charges could be taken out because the dogs were released by the owner,” she said, though a civil suit can be filed.

Jeff Walters, the child’s grandfather also hopes that something can be done legally based on some other factors in the incident.

“The dog owner barricaded himself in the house with the dogs and told the police he was not at home though he was there the whole while,” Walters said.

An eager Carson looks forward to a follow-up appointment with a doctor and can’t wait until his “itching stitches” are removed.

Dexter Hinson can be contacted by email at snaponline21@carolina.rr.com.

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