Young Girl Pulls Neighbor from Attacking Dog, Sustains Bites
The Sun Journal
March 13, 2004, BRIDGETON, NC -- Meradith Bell is a neighborhood hero in the
Saints Delight Church Road Community.Only 8 1/2 years old, the Bridgeton
Elementary School student is standing tall, though on injured legs, after
pulling neighbor Makita Waters from the vicinity of a rottweiler dog two
Sundays ago only to find herself attacked instead.
Bell and 3-year-old Waters were playing with friends on Gladewood Drive off
Saints Delight Church Road, waiting for Waters' sister to join them,
Meradith recalled.
They thought she was at her grandmother's house so they set out to find her.
"She was still at her house so we went down there riding in a Barbie Jeep,"
she said. "We were not thinking and took a short cut and I saw the dog but
only half his chain. There were lots of dogs and the larger dog jumped on
her."
Meradith pulled Waters away. It wasn't until she got to her own house that
she realized she was bitten in the encounter." I was crying. My leg still
hurts," she said.
"The dog bit her numerous times in the back of the leg and chewed up her
right arm where the elbow bends," said her mother, Doris Bell. "She had
thick pants on so nobody knew her legs were like that until later."
Doris Bell said she first heard the whole story about the attack from a girl
next door who saw it. "The dog jumped on the little girl first and Meradith
pulled her off," said Doris Bell, who "was familiar with the dog from a
previous incident" and phoned Craven County Sheriff Deputies.
Once the extent of the child's injuries was apparent, she was taken to
Craven Regional Medical Center where she was treated and released.
Danny Bell, Meradith's father, filed the Feb. 22 incident report with Deputy
John Clay, whose report states that he met with dog owner Dianne Cortez of
102 Gladewood Circle and she "said her dog had bitten a little girl and she
wanted the dog destroyed."
Clay told the Bells that criminal charges were inappropriate since the
incident happened on private property, but that the dog owner was
responsible for medical bills connected to the incident.
The sheriff's department later told the family the dog had been picked up by
Craven County Animal Control and would be held for 10 days for observation,
then destroyed.
The girl's grandfather Cebert Jones, said Thursday, that she may have to
have surgery on her legs to repair the damage but she is back at school full
time after more than a week of short days due to the injuries.
Sue Book can be reached at 638-8101 ext. 262 or at sue_book@link.freedom.com.
