Oregon, My Oregon

At PM, The most Portland story ever, Portland pastry chef MAULED by pit bull; dog’s handler tries to flee but ODs on fentanyl as police close in

Portland Pastry chef Cheryl Wakerhauser is recovering after being mauled by a dog on Monday.

Wakerhauser is the owner of pastry shop Pix Patisserie and told KATU she was out for a run along Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard when she was attacked by a pit bull. According to Wakerhauser, the dog was off-leash in a parking lot of a vacant building that is surrounded by a chain-link fence, grabbed her leg and threw her to the ground, and attacked her arm and legs. As a result of the attack, the pastry chef has over 35 puncture wounds.

She told the outlet, “The arm, the leg, the other leg, I was just trying to put my foot in front of him and wave at cars that were driving by. And I start looking around, and I started saying, like, I’m on the ground. I started screaming for help like I was having a nightmare, like, ‘Help me, somebody help me,’ and in a nightmare, you’re screaming but nobody can hear you. I felt like that.”

A driver saw what was happening, flipped a U-turn, and honked her horn to try to scare the dog off, while simultaneously a man with a leash walked up, claimed it wasn’t his dog, but led the dog away.

KATU reported that another witness followed the man and dog and later led law enforcement to them. According to the police, the pit bull is named “Bubbie” and was taken away by animal control.

The Portland Police Bureau said that the dog's handler/suspect had been arrested and booked on the day of the attack. According to law enforcement, the suspect, identified as Theron D. Bates, who is homeless, turned the dog over to officers and then tried to flee, but ingested fentanyl shortly afterward and overdosed. Police administered naloxone and took him for medical care before booking him into jail on a warrant. However, Bates is not the owner of the dog. According to police, the pit bull is owned by Jessie Miller, another homeless person and Bates was "babysitting" the dog.