Authorities have identified the 7-year-old boy who was fatally injured Saturday in Corinna.
Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton says Hunter Bragg was pronounced dead at a Moody Mills Road residence after he was attacked by an adult male pit bull. The dog has been euthanized, but the investigation continues.
Morton says the attack occurred around 5:15 p.m. Saturday at a home in Corinna while the boy and his father were visiting friends.
“Hunter was playing in the yard with two other children when the attack occurred,” Morton says. “Hunter’s father, Jason Bragg, 35, was at the residence at the time of the attack. The dog is owned by Gary Merchant, 45, of 207 Moody Mills Road in Corinna. Following the attack, the owner requested that the dog be euthanized by an area veterinarian. No other people were injured during the attack.”
According to WCSH TV in Portland, a person claiming to be the previous owner of the dog, and the victim’s cousin, told the station that the pit bull was not dangerous or vicious. The former owner said the animal had never shown signs of being aggressive and that he was a “good and loving dog.”
Morton says details about whether the dog had ever attacked anyone before, or was tethered at the time of the incident, are being withheld pending the results of his department’s investigation.
“This is a sensitive and complex investigation and some of those matters are best kept as we continue to investigate it as an active investigation,” Morton says. “As you know some of the investigations and reports from the ME’s [medical examiner’s] office and veterinarian and things like that are going to take days, if not weeks, so we’ll continue to release information when we can.”
A site on GoFundMe.com has been set up to help Hunter’s family pay for funeral expenses.
Fatal dog attacks are rare in Maine, but in 2011, a 7-month-old girl in Frankfort, Annabelle Mitchell, was mauled to death by the family’s Rottweiler. Her mother was sentenced to three months in jail for endangering the welfare of a child.