Doubt raised as to dog that bit off girl's ear

A little girl in a fuchsia dress sat inside a South Jersey courtroom for hours yesterday, exhibiting her best behavior while adults argued over how her ear was bitten off last year by one of a Haddonfield surgeon's infamous dogs.

Claire McVeigh, 4, played with her tattered Angelina Ballerina doll, traced capital letters in workbooks and, as the day wore on, sometimes slumped her head on the chair and sucked on a lollipop.

On Nov. 18, Claire, her brother and her mother were visiting Dr. Robert Taffet's goat farm in Alloway, Salem County, to see a new puppy that the dog-loving Haddonfield family had recently bought. Sometime during the visit, Claire went into a barn with Taffet's 19-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and the Taffet's four Rhodesian Ridgebacks. A few minutes later, Claire was screaming, bleeding and missing nearly all of her right ear.

Cindi McVeigh has said in the past that her daughter fell over in the barn and lost her ear when Duke lunged at her, although she didn't witness the attack.

The Taffets were later charged with owning a vicious dog. They were in municipal court yesterday to fight the accusations, which could result in Duke's being euthanized.

The Taffets are accustomed to defending their dogs in court, particularly Duke's father, Rocky, who had been accused of biting or scratching at least three children and another doctor in Haddonfield who wound up needing 30 stitches. Rocky, who had once been on the herb St. John's Wort to improve his mood, brought the Taffets to the appellate court in Trenton earlier this year over his "potentially dangerous" label.

During her testimony yesterday, Elizabeth Taffet admitted that she blamed Duke when the grisly scene unfolded last year, but now claims that it was simply because he was the closest dog to Claire.

"Did you see any of the dogs spit out her ear?" George Rosenberger, the municipal prosecutor in Pilesgrove, Salem County, asked Elizabeth Taffet.

The college student said she only heard the screams and saw the bloody aftermath. "I didn't see her get bitten," she testified.

Robert Taffet claimed in testimony that his daughter said she "thought it might have been Duke." He said he never found any blood on Duke or any of his other Ridgebacks.

Cindi McVeigh, who dabbed tears from her face when pictures of Claire's severed ear were shown, said her daughter endured hours of surgery after the bite to have her ear reattached and has at least two more scheduled.

"It was hard to see it because it makes you think of the whole day again," the Pennsville, Salem County, woman said after the hearing.

The hearing will resume on July 16, when a dog expert hired by the Taffets is set to testify.