Dogs chase, bite Belmont boy while he's jogging

BELMONT — A 12-year-old boy who was jogging on Jamestown Road Wednesday afternoon was bitten by two German Shepard dogs that apparently escaped from a pen.

Robin Sanborn said she picked up her son Jeremy from lacrosse practice and let him out of the car on Jamestown so he could jog the rest of the way home.

She said she and her younger son were driving slow and watching him when the two dogs came running after him as he ran.

Sanborn, a longtime dog owner herself, said the dogs didn't seem like they were growling and their hair was standing up but Jeremy "probably began running faster and they began chasing him."

She said the grabbed his pants leg and knocked him down but she, her other son and a male passerby, chased the dogs back toward their home on nearby Coons Point Road.

As far as she knows, Sanborn said the dogs had never escaped their pen before and her only issue with them was barking — but because she has dogs as well she said she can't really complain.

Sanborn said Jeremy actually walked the rest of the way to the house and it wasn't until he took down his pants that he realized how severe the bites were.

"He had two really good-sized gashes on the back of his leg and thigh" she said.

She said she called 9-1-1 and police and firefighters arrived. She learned from the responding officer that the dogs were up-to-date on all of their shots.

The youngster was taken to the Lakes Region General Hospital by ambulance and received a total of 34 stitches.

"I don't necessarily want (the dogs) destroyed but I don't want them to bite anyone else," Sanborn said, noting her son is athletic and if the dogs had done this to a smaller, younger child the results "could have been so much worse."

She said Jeremy went to school yesterday morning but was told he couldn't play lacrosse or go running for at least 10 days.

In a written statement to local media, Belmont Police Chief Vincent Baiocchetti said police are continuing to investigate and anyone with any information is asked to call Patrol Officer Joel Pickowitz at 267-8350.