Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Dog bites man; did man bite first?

The man says no. His daughter is not so sure.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published January 3, 2007

SHADY HILLS — Gerald Smith loves dogs. Gerald Smith wears dentures. Gerald Smith has been known to show dogs his love by nipping them on the nose.

You can see where this is going.

On Monday, a very large dog bit Smith, sending him to the emergency room for stitches. He denied biting the dog first. But his daughter told authorities she had evidence to the contrary.

Smith is 77. He lives with his daughter, Lisa Leto, her husband, Jim, and more than one dog, including a male English mastiff, according to a sheriff’s incident report. He was playing with the mastiff on New Year’s Day when it lunged at him and lacerated his lower lip.

Before Leto took Smith to the hospital, she said she noticed something strange on the bridge of the mastiff’s nose:   apparent tooth marks.

Leto told a deputy that her father had been previously spotted biting dogs’ noses.
He never tried to hurt the dogs, she said, but maybe this time he did.

By accident.

Because the dentures would make it hard to judge the pressure.

No, Smith said, insisting he didn’t bite.

It was only a kiss.

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified January 3, 2007, 22:00:13]