FARMINGTON — Animal Control Officer Wayne Atwood is asking for help locating a dog that bit a young man Monday near the Sandy River beach area in Farmington Falls. He also wants to locate a woman who helped the victim afterward.

Christopher Grant, 25, is currently in the hospital fighting an infection from the bite. He said he went to the popular site on the river called “the beach,” just off Route 156, at around 12:30 p.m. Monday. He was alone.

While walking toward the river, a dog came up to him appearing to be friendly so he spoke to it and started to pet it, he said. The dog then lunged at him and bit into his leg. He hollered for help and the dog let go and took off.

A woman on the beach heard him, came to help and wrapped his leg. She advised him to go to the hospital, because the wound was bleeding quite a bit, he said.

Grant had 12 stitches to close the wound and was sent home. He was told to return on Tuesday to have it checked, but by then it had become infected and he was hospitalized.

Atwood would like to talk with the woman who helped Grant, he said. He described her as being in her 30s with sandy blond hair.

The dog, as described by Grant, looks like an old English bulldog in the face. He thought it was a male dog that is approximately 2 feet tall and about 3 -feet long. Grant said the dog is a light cream or white color but may have some brown spots on its legs. The head, body, chest and toes are all the same light color. The dog did not have a collar as Grant remembers and he’s not sure whether it had a tail.

There were some other people at the river’s edge at the time, Atwood said. Some weren’t aware of the incident but another woman spoke of two teenage girls walking out of the area. Atwood wasn’t sure if they were there to swim or might have been walking the dog when it got loose from them.

The animal control officer wasn’t called till about three hours after the incident, making it harder for him to gather information.

“It was a pretty serious bite,” he said Wednesday while asking for help from the public.

Anyone with any information or the young woman who helped Grant is asked to call either Atwood at 645-4918, the Farmington Police Department at 778-6311 or the Sheriff’s Department at 778-2680.

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