By Jeff Lehr

Globe Staff Writer

WEBB CITY, Mo. - Was Fiddy Cent the pit bull formerly known as Cain?

The pit bull that bit the face of a 9-year-old girl on May 30 may have been the same dog that a municipal judge expelled from the city limits last year for being a vicious animal, Webb City officials said Wednesday.

The owner of Fiddy Cent and a past owner of Cain have denied to Webb City animal-control officer Christy Grimmett that the two dogs were the same dog. But Grimmett, who worked the case last August when Cain reportedly broke off his chain, jumped a fence and cornered a 6-year-old neighbor boy up against a house, remains skeptical of their denials.

"The dog (Fiddy Cent) was identical - same build, same coloring, same eye coloring as Cain," Grimmett told the Globe on Wednesday.

Fiddy Cent was tracked down, taken into custody and killed last week after inflicting a serious bite on the cheek and neck of Emily Wilkins about 3 centimeters from her mouth. Grimmett said the dog took a full bite of the girl's face, tearing her cheek open and puncturing her neck in one spot.

The girl was treated at the emergency room at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin.

She was released later the same day after receiving 53 stitches.

"Considering the circumstances, she is doing well," Emily's mother, Lisa Guild, said Wednesday.

Fiddy Cent's owner, Preston M. Blaney, 33, was cited Tuesday. He was accused of harboring a vicious animal, not having the dog licensed and not having the dog vaccinated for rabies. The citations followed a weeklong investigation by Webb City police and animal control. Blaney is to appear June 21 in municipal court in Webb City.

The Wilkins girl was in the company of Blaney's daughter May 30 in Blaney's yard at 209 S. Ball St. when the attack took place, according to Grimmett and Webb City police reports.

Guild described the Blaney girl as a neighborhood acquaintance of her daughter's. They live four doors away from the Blaneys.

The girl later told Grimmett that she had gone to the Blaneys to get an air pump. She asked Blaney's daughter if she could pet their pit bull and was told to be gentle. After a few pets, the dog growled, and the Wilkins girl took her hand away, she told Grimmett. The dog then barked once, jumped up and bit her, and knocked her down, according to police reports.

The hospital reported the bite to Grimmett the same day, and she went to Blaney's home to quarantine the dog for rabies.

By the time Grimmett got there, the dog was gone. Blaney told her that his ex-wife, Rose Lozano, had picked it up with the intent of releasing it in the country. Grimmett said she told Blaney to contact Lozano and tell her she needed to return the dog for quarantine.

When Grimmett returned to the Blaney home later in the afternoon, Lozano called her and told her she had let Fiddy Cent loose in a graveyard near Carl Junction. Grimmett said she told Lozano and Blaney that they needed to surrender the dog for quarantine by the following morning, and that Lozano took the dog back to Blaney's residence by 5 p.m. the day of the bite.

Grimmett said she told Blaney that he needed to either agree to pay for a 10-day quarantine or relinquish ownership of the dog, with the likelihood that the dog would be tested for rabies and killed.

Blaney reportedly relinquished ownership, and the dog was taken to the Joplin Humane Society, where the decision was made to kill the dog.

"It just made more sense to euthanize the dog without risking the chance of shelter staff getting bit," Grimmett said.

Grimmett said she knew from the incident last August that Lozano and her current husband, Victor Gardner, who live about a block away from Blaney, owned the pit bull called Cain at the time of that incident. Judge Mark Elliston had ordered them to remove Cain from the city limits.

A neighbor told Grimmett that she had heard Blaney's children refer to the dog that bit the Wilkins girl as "Cain."

Grimmett said that when she first asked Blaney if Cain and Fiddy Cent were the same dog, he denied it and told her that his children loved Cain so much that they tended to call Fiddy Cent by that name. Lozano told her that they were not the same dog, and that she had turned Cain over to a sister who lived outside the city limits.

But, when she later asked Lozano to produce Cain, Lozano told her that he had been hit by a car last Thanksgiving while at her sister's place and was no longer alive, Grimmett said.

No one answered the telephone at Blaney's home Wednesday afternoon, and the Globe could not reach Lozano or Gardner for comment.

Vicious dogs

Residents are prohibited from keeping vicious dogs inside the city limits in Webb City. Vicious dogs are defined as any dog that is trained as a guard dog or watchdog by its current owner or a previous owner, and any dog that has injured people or damaged property.