Downingtown dog involved in 4 attacks is euthanized

A Downingtown dog has been euthanized after it injured multiple people in recent months and made residents feel unsafe, officials said.

The decision, made the day of a Thursday hearing in Magisterial District Court, stems from a November incident in which the dog bit a child in the neighboring house on the 500 block of Thomas Road.

Whitley Coggins said her sons, ages 4 and 8, had been playing in the backyard when the neighbor’s dogs were let outside. One mixed-breed dog got through the fence, attacking her youngest son, she said. The boy was bitten on his upper arm, and required stitches.

There are four dogs that had been known to neighbors for aggressive behavior, she said. Though the Coggins family had never personally experienced it until November, the mother said she warned her sons to run back inside if they ever saw the dogs in the yard.

After the hearing and owner’s decision to euthanize, Coggins said she was frustrated that the only positive was that one of the dogs was removed from the house.

“I feel like I’m supposed to feel like something was done, I’m supposed to feel good that the one dog that attacked my child is gone, and I do feel a small sense of replaced safety or something — that that one dog is not there,” she said. “But that one dog has never been the problem, not the whole problem.”

Coggins said her sons still feel unsafe leaving the house and are fearful of dogs.

“Following our time in court, we still had to return — and the rest of neighbors had to return — to a neighborhood with three dogs who have registered attacks on other people and other animals, and because of the laws and the way the laws are written or interpreted, there is nothing to go forward with to remove these dogs,” Coggins said.

Reached by phone, the attorney for the dog owner declined comment.

Brendan Brazunas, Downingtown’s chief of police, said the owner’s defense counsel immediately suggested euthanasia given the seriousness of the 4-year-old’s injury, and the fact that this was the fourth documented bite involving this dog since 2023.

“The dog that created the most issues at that house is this dog that was euthanized,” Brazunas said. “Obviously, the community is very concerned and they’re afraid, and I think this was the first step with regards to dogs at that house.”

Brandywine Valley SPCA, which had assisted the Downingtown police in the case, transported and euthanized the dog, a spokesperson for the organization said.

The charges were dropped, as they can only be made for live dogs, Brazunas said. But there are ongoing cases facing the owner’s other dogs.

A Jan. 20 incident was reported to police when the dogs escaped through an open door and injured an adult man, a tow-truck driver who was returning a vehicle. That case will be heard in the coming weeks.

The SPCA has six outstanding charges for other dogs in the owner’s home regarding rabies vaccinations, dog licenses, and the dogs getting loose, the spokesperson said.