Mill Spring resident bitten by dog at Landrum Farmers Market
Published 10:00 pm Tuesday, July 12, 2016
![A Mill Spring resident was bitten by a dog on his right arm between the wrist and elbow at the Landrum Farmer’s Market Saturday morning at approximately 9 a.m. Landrum Police Lt. Coffin responded to the scene, stating the dog was a large, standard poodle and asked the man and his wife to contact Spartanburg Animal Control if they believed the dog to be vicious. The couple, who wants to know if the dog has a rabies certificate, has not received a phone call from the owner of the dog to confirm this piece of information. (Photos submitted by Catherine Tupper)](https://www.tryondailybulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/07/NEWSp4-LandrumFarmersMarketDogBite1.jpg)
A Mill Spring resident was bitten by a dog on his right arm between the wrist and elbow at the Landrum Farmer’s Market Saturday morning at approximately 9 a.m. Landrum Police Lt. Coffin responded to the scene. and asked the man and his wife to contact Spartanburg Animal Control if they believed the dog to be vicious. Further investigation concluded the dog is a Bouvier breed. The couple, who wants to know if the dog has a rabies certificate, has not received a phone call from the owner of the dog to confirm this piece of information. (Photos submitted by Catherine Tupper)
Mill Spring resident Steve Flynn was bitten by a dog at the Landrum Farmers Market Saturday morning.
Flynn and his wife Catherine Tupper were at the farmers market at approximately 9 a.m. when a large, standard poodle bit Flynn and left injuries on his right arm between the wrist and elbow, according to Tupper. Tupper said Lt. Jason Coffin with the Landrum Police Department responded to the scene. Tupper and Coffin came to the conclusion the dog is a Bouvier breed.
“After he was bitten, I made contact with Officer Coffin,” Tupper explained. “There was no report filed but he suggested I contact the Spartanburg Animal Control if we believed the dog to be vicious. This will not happen again.”
In a post on Facebook about the incident, Tupper said the owner of the dog “sauntered” off after the incident occurred. According to Flynn, the owner of the dog had only said the dog was “in training” but did nothing to alleviate the situation.
Tupper said she pursued the woman and her dog following the bite but could not catch up to her. The woman has not been identified yet. Tupper said she also made calls to the Spartanburg Animal Control on Saturday morning with no response.
“The dog didn’t take my arm off, but it was a powerful dog, and my whole arm hurts,” Flynn said in an interview Sunday night. “I asked the owner if the dog had its rabies shot, and she answered it did. The dog clearly did not want to be there because I watched the owner jerk it across the street to the market.”
On Sunday night, Tupper said no contact has been made with the owner of the dog in the 36 hours following the incident.
“We want to know that a rabies certificate is indeed on file for the dog,” Tupper said. “We’re dog lovers, too, and we want no harm to come to the dog because of this but we wish it would be muzzled next time.”
Lt. Coffin trains dogs and had the same opinion, according to Flynn.
“My question is, why wasn’t the dog wearing a muzzle?” Flynn said. “Why was it being taken to the market to be socialized?”
According to Flynn, a trainer was with the woman and dog on scene at the market. He said the trainer called him and his wife to apologize, but said the owner should have been the one to make the call.
“What really bothers me is the fact that the owner expressed no remorse and has yet to contact me,” Flynn said. “It seemed to be just an embarrassing nuisance like a bothersome fly on her arm. It could have been a child’s face instead of my arm.”
Landrum Police Chief Tim Edgens said it was not a criminal case and called it just an accident.
“Had the dog been unleashed by the owner, then it would be a criminal investigation,” Edgens said. “We did have them contact Spartanburg Animal Control if the dog was believed to be vicious. There was no report filed, and that’s all there really is to it. It was just an accident.”
UPDATE: According to Flynn, the owner of the dog that bit him at the Landrum Farmers Market has been identified as Heather Kane. Flynn said the dog’s trainer called him to give him the name and number for Kane, but no phone call by the owner has been made. Flynn said he contacted Spartanburg Animal Control and asked for a ticket to be issued to Kane for not giving him and Tupper a phone call to confirm the rabies certificate on file and offer an apology for the incident.
Because Kane is no longer in Spartanburg County, Spartanburg Animal Control called Flynn and his wife on Tuesday morning to tell them they could not issue a ticket to Kane since she is no longer physically at the Landrum Farmers Market or in the county. Flynn said Animal Control told him Kane would be moving to Philadelphia in the near future because her husband received a new job in Pennsylvania. A civil suit to recoup the doctor’s bills was suggested by Animal Control to Flynn and his wife.