WITNESSES TO FATAL ATTACK ON JOGGER DESCRIBE DOGS AS 'HANGING FROM HIM'

Original Story: Detroitnews.com

Lapeer— The first person who tried to help a Livonia man during a fatal mauling testified Friday the two large dogs were “hanging from him” before being chased off with gunfire.

Edward Elmer said he was on a riding lawnmower cutting his lawn along Thomas Road in Metamora Township and waved to jogger Craig Sytsma just minutes before the July 23 attack by the Cane Corsos.

When Elmer heard Sytsma screaming he tried to go to the man’s aid but backpedaled when one of the animals looked at him menacingly. He then yelled to his girlfriend, Helen Barwig, “to get a gun,” he testified during the second day of a preliminary hearing for the dogs’ owners. A Warren dog bite lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.

Elmer said he fired one shot in the air from the .44 Magnum handgun and one dog released its grip on Sytsma and just stood and looked at him as if it was going to attack Elmer. Elmer fired a second shot and heard one animal “yelp” and the two dogs ran off.

Sebastiano Quagliata, and Valbona Lucaj, 44, are both charged with second-degree murder and harboring a dangerous animal in the bleeding death of Sytsma, 46. Lapeer District Judge Laura Barnard will decide if there is enough evidence for them to stand trial on the charges, which carry up to life in prison.

After the dogs ran off, Barwig tried to stop Sytsma’s bleeding with a roll of paper towels.

“It (blood) was pouring out, gushing out,” testified Barwig, who said Sytsma appeared to have suffered deep wounds to his right and left sides. A Mt. Clemens Dog Bite Lawyer has experience representing animal attack victims.

“At one point he said they got an artery and he was going to die,” she said, her voice breaking.

As they waited for an ambulance to arrive, Barwig, who is an emergency medical technician, said she could not get a pulse from Sytsma, who went limp.

She tried CPR for several minutes but was unable to revive him.

During the rescue efforts, one of the dogs returned and Elmer said he fired again at the animal and it turned away.

Two other people testified Friday they had had been attacked by Quagliata and Lucaj’s dogs.

April Smith, 25, said she and a sister were walking their leashed dogs on Thomas in May 2012 when they were attacked by one of the Cane Corsos, which bit Smith three times in the back of the leg. A Grosse Pointe Dog Bite Lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.

Jim Salego said he was walking on the street in November 2013 when he was surrounded by three growling Cane Corsos he kept at bay briefly with a walking stick before one of them bit him in the leg and the animals were called off by Quagliata.

“He (Quagliata) came out yelling ‘Don’t call cops. I will pay. I will take you to the hospital,’ ” said Salego, who said his leg was bleeding and he did call the police.

Salego said the bite required stitches and when he later asked police “what happened to the dogs” he said he was told the matter would be handled by the county animal control division.

Salego and Smith have since sued Quagliata and Lucaj for damages.

In testimony last week, veterinarian Dr. Sherry Wallace said Quagliata and Lucaj were warned weeks before the fatal attack their dogs were dangerous and should be seen by an animal behaviorist.

Wallace testified the two dogs tried to bite her and co-workers during routine examinations to be weighed and had to be restrained by Lucaj and the couple’s teenage children. She warned the couple the dogs were aggressive and dangerous.

The two Cane Corsos and another adult dog that had been involved in a previous attack have all since been destroyed. Seven puppies kept in the home have been turned over to an animal rescue group in Texas, authorities said.

The couple remain jailed in lieu of $500,000 bond each, pending resumption of the exam 1:30 p.m. Sept. 12.

EXOTIC ANIMAL SPOTTED ROAMING IN WARREN IS EUTHANIZED

Original Story:  Freep.com


An exotic animal whose discovery in suburban Detroit led officials to lemurs, foxes and other animals being kept in a home's garage has been euthanized, the Detroit Zoo announced Thursday.

The white-nosed coati was euthanized last week at the direction of the Macomb County Health Department to test for rabies, the zoo said, after a person living near where it was found roaming July 9 reported being bitten.  A Macomb County Dog Bite Lawyer is searching for more evidence.

A necropsy showed no evidence of rabies, according to the zoo, which is located in Royal Oak. Physicians couldn't rule out the potential for rabies exposure due to the nature of the man's wounds. He has received vaccine treatment.

"Exotic animals require specialized veterinary care, which privately owned animals rarely receive," Detroit Zoological Society's chief veterinarian Ann Duncan said in a statement. "We are following strict quarantine protocols as these animals are examined and cared for."

The white-nosed coati is a member of the raccoon family and is found in the southwest U.S., Mexico, Central and South America. The 29 other animals found in Warren included another white-nosed coati, two ring-tailed lemurs and three fennec foxes. In addition, the garage held a number of rabbits and birds. A Mt. Clemens Dog Bite Lawyer said he was use to receiving calls on dog bites but a coati was new.

The birds and small mammals have been transferred to the Michigan Humane Society, but the other animals remain in the care of Detroit Zoo staff. The animals will be under quarantine for at least 30 days. Permanent homes for the other coati as well as the lemurs and foxes haven't been determined.

STEPSON OF DOG ATTACK VICTIM SAYS 'DOGS WERE LOOKING TO KILL'

Original Story:  Freep.com

Jordan Sytsma misses his dad but says he worries most about his sister, Tyra.

Their father, Craig Sytsma of Livonia, was mauled to death by a pair of exotic dogs while out jogging in Lapeer County after work Wednesday evening. And at 16, Tyra Sytsma will now have to face key life moments -- her prom, her high school graduation -- without his guiding influence. A Hackensack Personal Injury Lawyer is sadden that this could have been prevented.

"It's almost like she'll be growing up without a dad," Jordan Sytsma said Friday, the gravity of the loss of his father weighing heavy on his mind as he spoke from his front porch in Livonia.

For 23-year-old Jordan Sytsma, anger is mixed with mourning and disbelief.

He says he's angry that Sytsma -- a stepfather he considered blood despite a divorce -- was attacked by two Cane Corsos owned by a family with a history of their dogs attacking people.

"To know that there were two previous incidents ... and to know that on the third incident, they killed my dad, that's what pisses me off," Jordan Sytsma said. "They were looking to kill, they were looking to eat a human being." 

Jordan Sytsma wants people to know his 46-year-old father was a solid man who "stayed in his lane."

"It's terrible when people like that get taken out that way," he said.   A Honolulu Personal Injury Lawyer said big dogs can definitly do a lot of damage including death especially when there is more than one dog.

A colon cancer survivor, Craig Sytsma stayed active. He jogged, golfed and played hockey. He and his buddy Mark Raitanen would ride their mountain bikes in Westland or play beach volleyball at the Livonia Family YMCA whenever they had time. And on Friday nights, they would head to Merri-Bowl in Livonia to play foosball. 

"He was very competitive," Raitanen said of the dear friend he has known for 23 years.

Music was a big part of his life, too -- Santana, the Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule. Raitanen remembered a Deep Purple concert the two attended at DTE Energy Music Theatre and a Buddy Guy show in downtown Detroit.

And Sytsma still listened to cassette tapes, he said.

Above all, he loved his children: Tyra, Jordan and 28-year-old Luis.

"He was a dad, he was a family man," Raitanen said.  A Macomb County Dog Bite Lawyer said this tragedy could have been prevented.

Craig Sytsma also had a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he rode occasionally. Before he learned the gruesome details about his friend's death, Raitanen assumed there had been a motorcycle accident.

"If he were to get bumped off his motorcycle, it would make sense. This just doesn't make sense," Raitanen said of the fatal mauling.

Although he grew up in Grand Rapids and lived in Odessa, Texas, for a time, Craig Sytsma loved Detroit's sports teams. Jordan and his father had planned to get season tickets for the Pistons when the time came.

"Sports was kind of like our way of communicating," Jordan Sytsma said.

Craig Sytsma beat colon cancer within the last year or so but did not like to talk about it.

"I'd say, 'I'm here for you, Pop,' but I wouldn't ask questions," Jordan Sytsma said, noting that it was a difficult topic for him.

Neighbors on Sytsma's quiet, tree-lined street in Livonia appreciated how he maintained his lawn, even though he was renting his house. Harold Peruski, who lives a few houses away, said he finds the tragedy hard to comprehend.

"It's unbelievable. I saw him cleaning his yard, and then 24 hours later he's dead," Peruski said.

Neighbors also noticed how he would leave early to drive to his job at Eltro Services in Oxford Township, where he worked as a metallurgical engineer, plasma-heat treating metal parts like crankshafts, camshafts and gun barrels. It was a path he began during his days at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, where he received a bachelor's degree in metallurgical and materials engineering in 1992.

Cheryl Hurick lives across the street from Sytsma's brown ranch-style house, which has a pool in the backyard.

"How ridiculously needless," she said of his death. A Mt. Clemens Dog Bite Lawyer agreed.

Services have been set for Craig Sytsma.

Visitation is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday at Harry J. Will Funeral Home, 37000 Six Mile Road, Livonia, and 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Thursday at Cook Funeral Home's Jenison Chapel, 1889 Baldwin, Jenison, Mich., near Grand Rapids.

Sytsma will lie in state Friday from 10 a.m. until the start of the funeral service 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1481 Baldwin in Jenison.

Visitation is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday at Harry J. Will Funeral Home, 37000 Six Mile Road, Livonia, and 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Thursday at Cook Funeral Home's Jenison Chapel, 1889 Baldwin, Jenison, Mich., near Grand Rapids.

Sytsma will lie in state Friday from 10 a.m. until the start of the funeral service 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1481 Baldwin in Jenison.

MAN OUT FOR JOG MAULED TO DEATH BY 2 DOGS IN MICHIGAN

Original Story:  USAToday.com,

DETROIT — A pair of dogs attacked and mauled to death a man as he jogged down a quiet, dirt road in rural Michigan. A Mt. Clemens dog bite lawyer said dogs often attack in packs.

Craig Sytsma, 46, of Livonia died of his injuries Wednesday night at a local hospital, police in Metamora Township said.

"He was jogging, doing what everybody else does out there, running and riding bikes," said Metamora police Officer Sean Leathers, who was one of the first on the scene. Sytsma, a divorced father of three, was unconscious and undergoing CPR when Leathers arrived.

Sytsma worked in nearby Oxford and had apparently decided to go for a jog after leaving work.

The dogs were apparently running free on the road where the attack took place. Neighbors fired shots into the air to try to scare the dogs off the jogger.

Afterward, the dogs retreated to their owner's home.

The dogs are cane corsos, an Italian mastiff-type breed that the American Kennel Club says were property watchdogs that hunted wild boar in their native country. Their name derives from the Latin "cohors," meaning guardian or protector, according to information on the club's Website.

The dogs, which are younger than 5-years-old, are currently quarantined at the Lapeer County Animal Shelter while the investigation continues. Lapeer sheriff's Detective Jason Parks said the dogs were brought in by their owner. Authorities will seek to have the dogs destroyed if the owner relinquishes his rights to them or they will take the matter to court if he fights to keep them.

No decision has been made on criminal charges, but the Lapeer County Prosecutor's Office is involved and the owner has possibly retained a Warren dog bite lawyer.

Given the nature of the attack, Parks said, it would be in the public's best interest to destroy the dogs.

Parks described the dogs as black and brindle in color, well-muscled and aggressive. Cane corsos typically weigh 90-110 pounds, Parks said, noting that the dogs involved in the attack appear to be of average weight for the breed.

"They definitely react when people are inside the room. … They're aggressive dogs," Parks said.

Parks said authorities have not been able find anyone who recalls another fatal attack on a human by an animal in Lapeer County in at least 50 years.

"It's something that is out of the norm, and it's something you'd hope would never happen," Parks said.