Groomer recovering following dog attack; questions lack of response from authorities

Jun. 18—Mayra Rodriguez followed her dream of opening a grooming salon because she has always loved dogs.

After suffering a vicious attack from a dog she knew for years, the owner of the Glitter Paws on Grand Island is not only dealing with her physical wounds but also the emotional challenge of trying to prepare herself to work with dogs again.

"Grooming is really my passion," she said. "Dogs are my passion."

"It's shaken me because I worked with dogs since I was a teenager," she added. "Well over 15 years I've worked with dogs. We've heard of bad cases, but I've never seen a dog be so cruel and not want to stop."

RECALLING THE INCIDENT

Rodriguez's dog attack happened on May 20 outside the Grand Island Boulevard plaza where her business is located.

She was scheduled to have the day off, however, she agreed to come to the plaza to see if she could help the staff at a neighboring business, The Pit Chic Training, Boarding and Municipal Shelter calm a Shar Pei whom she was told had been giving the staff some trouble. She said she agreed to do so because she had previous experience working with the dog, having groomed it for several years, first at her former job at PetCo and later at Glitter Paws.

The Pit Chic's owner, Kelli Swagel, said on the day of the incident staff notified her that the dog was showing clear signs of aggression, including growling, barking and biting at the kennel. As a result, she said the staff was uncomfortable handling the dog that morning.

Rodriguez arrived and was able to help coax the animal out of its kennel before taking it for a walk. As they were walking near the patio outside of the plaza, Rodriguez said she heard the dog whimper. When she reached out in an attempt to comfort the dog, Rodriguez said it turned on her and started biting her, first on her cheek and then on her chest and hand.

"The attack, for me, felt like forever, but it really went fast," she said.

Rodriguez said the attack stopped when an employee from The Pit Chic opened the door to the business, distracting the dog long enough for her to get the animal back under control. She believes that moment may have saved her life.

"It was really bad," she said. "This dog had no intentions of stopping."

INJURIES AND RECOVERY

By the time the biting stopped, the damage had already been done to Rodriguez's face and body.

The dog "ripped off" part of her cheek to the point where it was hanging by her bottom lip. The animal also caused two gashes under her left eye and damage to part of her lip, cheek and jaw as well as her chest. She also suffered what she described as "defensive wounds" on the bottom of the palm, wrist and thumb on her right hand.

Immediately following the attack, she was taken in a personal vehicle driven by one of her employees to Kenmore Mercy Hospital. She was later transferred to Erie County Medical Center for additional treatment.

Rodriguez spent 10 days under hospital care and said she was "mumbly" and unable to talk during that time. She is now scheduled for bi-weekly follow-ups with her doctor and expects she will require additional surgery in the future.

"So far, it's been OK," Rodriguez said. "(The doctor) said it's going to be a long recovery road but that in about a year's time, that's when the scarring will really be settled in and that's when we can do revision surgery on the scarring itself."

RESPONSE FROM AUTHORITIES

What's not been OK with Rodriguez has been the response from local authorities.

Swagel said she called the sheriff's office and reported the incident after it happened. She said she was told by a deputy who responded to the call that it was a civil matter and that it should be handled civilly.

"I advised the owner of the incident and that the dog needed to be removed immediately," Swagel said. "After I returned to my facility, I called sheriff's and reported the incident."

To date, Rodriguez has been unable to locate a physical copy of any report taken by an officer that day. Rodriguez said a deputy told her that while there was a "log" from the day of the attack, there was no report.

After she got out of the hospital, Rodriguez said she contacted Grand Island Animal Control and spoke with Officer Michael Ludwig who told her he couldn't file a report. He, too, indicated that the incident was "civil," not criminal, in nature.

Last week, after calling the Erie County Sheriff's Office four times and not receiving a response, Rodriguez paid a personal visit to the sheriff's office where a deputy took a report. She said the same deputy made it clear that the department would not be conducting any additional investigation.

Rodriguez said she was not advised during her stay at either Kenmore Mercy or ECMC if either hospital notified the Erie County Health Department. She spoke to an officer from the health department for the first time on Monday — 28 days since the incident — who directed her to file a report with the City of Niagara Falls Police Department because the owners of the dogs lived there.

Rodriguez did speak with Falls Animal Control Officer Donald Booth who told her he would try to help. She said he told her that she would need to report it to Grand Island authorities as that is where the incident occurred.

The whole experience has left Rodriguez confused and frustrated.

"I think that's the biggest disappointment for me throughout this," she said. "Instead of focusing on my recovery, I'm having to focus on them following up and doing their civic duties."

RESPONSE FROM OFFICIALS

Neither the Erie County Sheriff's Office nor Booth, the Niagara Falls dog control officer, responded to a request for comment.

Reached by telephone on Thursday, Grand Island Dog Control Officer Michael Ludwig said he was "not familiar" with the incident and "not in a position to answer any questions."

"That didn't come through Grand Island dog control in any way, shape or form," he said.

Ludwig said Rodriguez went to the hospital on her own and did not contact the town's animal control office when the incident happened.

"I don't have to explain it to you," Ludwig told a reporter. "If people don't call, then I don't have anything to do with it."

Ludwig said if there was any more information the newspaper wanted, it would need to file a "FOIL" request, a reference to a Freedom of Information Law, with the town.

Grand Island Town Clerk Patti Frentzel said the town has "no idea" where the dog is now because the town didn't know about the incident and did not investigate it. She agreed with Ludwig that it was a civil matter.

Frentzel said in a situation like the one Rodriguez experienced, where she went to a hospital on her own, it would be the legal responsibility of the hospital where she sought care to notify the Erie County Health Department.

"The emergency room is the responsible entity to file," she said. "There's nothing for the dog control officer to do because it's already been done."

Kara Kane, public information officer for the Erie County Department of Health, also directed the newspaper to file a FOIL request to obtain any records related to the incident.

Kane said the health department will investigate incidents following the filing of a complaint, which can be filed by hospitals and healthcare providers, along with law enforcement and private individuals. She said state sanitary code requires healthcare providers to report animal bites to the local health department, but if the healthcare provider determines there is no risk of rabies, they are not required to file a report.

On Monday, Kane said Rodriguez's case was referred to the department's environmental health division for a follow-up per departmental procedures.

WHAT ABOUT THE DOG?

In an email in response to questions from the newspaper, Swagel, The Pit Chic's owner, said she contacted the dog's owner after her staff notified her about its behavior on the morning of the incident. Swagel said she advised the owners that the dog needed to be picked up rather quickly as he was unhappy and boarding "may not be a good fit for him."

When she arrived on the morning of the incident and evaluated the dog, Swagel said she noted it was showing "clear signs of kennel aggression" and that she spoke "at length" with the owners that the dog "needed to be removed for safety reasons and for the well being of the dog." Swagel contacted Rodriguez and decided to see if she might be able to help.

"I reached out to Mayra to see if she was working that morning and explained to her the reason being the dog was showing aggressive behaviors," Swagel said. "Mayra said 'no' but offered to come handle him as she was familiar with him. I advised the owner Mayra offered to take him out and that I would update after."

Swagel said the owners completed a boarding waiver, a document in which they were asked to disclose any "aggressive history or known behavior concerns." She suggested that, at that time, they did not disclose any.

However, Swagel said the owners later disclosed information about a previous boarding where the dog was "not comfortable" and of a previous grooming appointment where the dog "showed signs of aggression towards other dogs."

Upon pick up of the dog after the biting incident, Swagel said the owners told her it had known behavior issues in the past in a kennel and they did not kennel him at home. Swagel said, at that time, the owner read and complied with signing what she described as an "acknowledgment of incident and notice of withholding information document."

Rodriguez said she's had a good working relationship with The Pit Chic since she opened the salon and believes that the owners of the dog, as Swagel suggested, may have failed to properly disclose potentially violent episodes in the dog's past that should have been recorded as part of the owners' boarding application paperwork.

Rodriguez said she has not been notified as to the status of the dog, which she said she reluctantly said, under the circumstances, may need to be euthanized.

She said she's still perplexed by the authorities' apparent lack of interest in her main concern: Locating the dog and making sure it doesn't harm someone else.

"If I knew this dog for four or five years and he did this to me without warning, what is he going to do to someone out on the street?" she added. "It could have been my daughter. It could have been my son."

HELP WITH BILLS

Rodriguez, a single mother of two children — a 3-year-old named Abraham and a 6-year-old daughter named Meredith — has been unable to return to work since the incident.

Her friend, Sally Thom, owner of Bubbles Dog Grooming Salon in Williamsville, started a GoFundMe page to support Rodriguez as she contends with medical and legal bills.

"Mayra helped me out quite a bit when I first got my business," Thom wrote on the GoFundMe page. "I knew she didn't really have the time, but she made time for us. Mayra is a wonderful human. Generous and loving. We always laugh when we say how giving Mayra is. We say she'd give you her last bite to eat and go without, just so you wouldn't be hungry. She's the provider and mom of two sweet young kids. She's always helping others. Now she needs our help."

To assist Rodriguez and her family, visit the page at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mayra-as-she-heals.