The mother of a 4-year-old Layton boy whose hand was bitten off by a next-door neighbor’s dog wrote that she’s grateful the animal won’t be returning home and that she hopes to “set the record straight.”
Davis County Animal Control announced that the owners of the two huskies involved in the boy’s injury have surrendered them, and the dogs will be moved to a sanctuary that has not yet been specified. In a long Facebook post, Hope Elizabeth Brown wrote, “We thank the Lord they won’t be coming back and our child is safe again.”
On March 3, Austin Brown, age 4, was playing in the backyard of his home when one of the two huskies, named Polar and Bear, bit and severed his forearm 5 centimeters below the elbow, according to his mother. A Layton City Fire Department official said at the time that the boy had reached under the fence, an account Brown once again disputed, calling it an “unprovoked attack.”
According to Davis County Animal Control, the dogs’ owners faced two citations for possession of dangerous animals and two for abatement of public nuisance animals, which were dropped in exchange for surrendering the animals.
“They’re considered dangerous,” Brown wrote. “Shouldn’t that be enough for everyone to understand and see that he was attacked?”
She wrote that when Austin was asked what happened, “he said, 'I saw a puppy nose! I touched the puppy nose and it bit my fingers and pulled me.' It only took a second for one of those dogs to dig under the fence just enough to get his snout and part of his head under.
“Our son LOVES dogs, Huskies are beautiful dogs. Of course a little boy would reach behind him to pet the dog. What child wouldn’t?”
According to Hope Brown, Austin is now recovering at home but “still needs 24-hour care”; will have to see a cardiologist; and faces “orthopedic therapies … PTSD counseling” and “many more surgeries.”
“Physically he is doing as well as we can hope,” she wrote, but “emotionally he is a wreck. He’s scared. He’s so angry. He can’t leave my side without panicking. Going from being a willful, sweet, happy, loving and empathetic little guy to an angry and confused small child has been awful.”
Brown thanked those who have expressed their support, but added that there have been “an unbelievable [number] of threats and hate sent to our family. People have said the most horrible things to us. I truly pray that the people who have said the most terrible things to us during this horrific time do not have to experience what our family is experiencing. I pray you never know the anguish our family is feeling and have hundreds of people coming after you.”
In the weeks since the incident, an online petition calling for the lives of the dogs to be spared garnered nearly a quarter of a million signatures.
"If you have found it in your heart to have compassion for these dogs, find it in your heart to have compassion for our little boy,” Hope Brown wrote. “For our family. Keep us in your prayers, we need it.”
And she responded to those who have suggested in postings online that her family were using the incident to enrich themselves. “People are saying we’re looking for a payday?” Brown wrote. “I would pay ANY amount of money, I would do anything to have had this not happen. I originally posted a PayPal because we had family who wanted to get us money for immediate needs. I had no idea it would be shared over and over.”
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