11-year-old attacked by stray dog leads to concerns over animal control response times

INDIANAPOLIS — An 11-year-old boy is recovering after he was attacked by a stray dog last week.

While the family is shocked, they’re also upset about the response time from Indianapolis Animal Care Services (IACS).

The 11-year-old was playing on the swing set in his grandfather’s backyard when the attack happened.

“I was playing on the swings I didn’t know that it was coming,” Yaddeir Ramirez who was attacked by a stray dog said. “It started running up to me and biting my leg and everything and I didn’t know what to do. “

WATCH | (Warning* Video shows footage of a dog bite that could be triggering for some viewers)

dog bite.MOV

The stray dog got into his grandfather’s backyard through a gate that was left open. Soon after the attack started, Yaddeir’s grandfather was able to get the dog off him by hitting it multiple times, but the terror didn’t stop there.

“The dog was walking around and I told my family get inside and close the door don’t go outside and I got my grandson because the dog was trying to follow us,” Isabel Ramirez Yaddeir’s grandfather said.

Yaddeir’s family took him to the hospital where he received several stitches while neighbors ended up calling animal control.

When the family returned from the hospital, they say the dog was still there contained in the backyard. No one from animal control showed up until the next day.

The family was left asking why no one showed up to get the dog sooner. According to Indianapolis Animal Care Services, staffing has a lot to do with it.

“Last year in 2022 we did respond to almost 30,000 requests for assistance,” Roxie Randall the Public Information Officer at IACS said. “So those are reports, calls, runs, all of those things so you can imagine there are only 13 of them to respond to that level of calls coming in. It can take us a little longer then even we would like to in some situations.”

Animal control is fully staffed at 23 officers. There are currently 19 fully trained officers and three others going through the training process. IACS also says three officers are on leave, which is why they choose which calls they answer based on urgency. This incident didn’t qualify as an urgent call at the time.

Marc Shutz

“If they mention that the animal you know had recently bitten someone or was acting aggressively that would definitely bump it higher up in to that,” Randall said. “But with it being contained does bump it down just a little bit because we know that dog isn’t going to go out and attack another person. “

Indianapolis animal care services says so far this year, they’ve received 677 reports of dog bites and more than 2,400 calls about aggressive animals.

IACS says it’s important to provide as many details as possible if you call about an aggressive dog. That will help officers determine how urgent the situation is, and how quickly they need to respond.

Once the new officers are trained, IACS says their response times will go down since there will be more people to respond to dangerous situations.