Woman urges responsible pet ownership after pit bull attacks grandson

An Owatonna grandmother is urging people to be responsible pet owners after her grandson was mauled by a pit bull earlier this summer.

Franz Jensen, 3, suffered a brutal attack while in the hands of his mother outside their Kenyon home on July 18. The pit bull, which has since been euthanized, attacked Franz, breaking his right leg and left arm and causing bites to the back of the head. He initially was treated at a hospital in Faribault but had to be transferred to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis where he was hospitalized for a week.

His mother, Briana Jensen, suffered from a significant bite on her hand during the attack.

While Franz has pretty much healed physically since the attack, the emotional scars will likely linger for years to come, said Sheila Distel, Franz’s grandmother. “It has been really traumatic,” she said, noting terror sets in even when the family encounters dogs on a leash. Franz has four siblings ranging in ages 1-8.

Briana was playing at the park across from their home when the attack happened. Briana had Franz on her hip when the dog mauled them. “Franz took the brunt of it,” Distel said. “My daughter is superhuman because she fought off a pit bill. If she wouldn’t have picked him up, I guarantee you he wouldn’t be with us. That dog would have killed my grandson.”

Distel, who works as a registered nurse in the Twin Cities, took off a week of work to help the family during the recovery.

The family learned after the attack that the dog was not current with rabies vaccination. While the dog is no longer around, the Jensens are fighting for damages with the owner’s insurance company in what they expect will be a long-drawn-out process. The owner has retained an attorney.

Distel is convinced there was negligence on behalf of the owner in Franz’s attack.

She has advice for other pet owners.

“Be mindful and be a responsible pet owner,” she said, noting high risk animals like pit bulls must be kept away from other people. She also added that dogs must be well contained and secured.

A GoFundMe campaign, “Help the Jensen’s Heal” has been set up by Distel to help the family raise $10,000 toward medical bills.

“We all need to work as a community to help them through this,” she said.

Since the attack, Franz doesn’t want to go outside or go for walks any more, according to Distel. “Bones have healed, but there is a lot of trauma to all of the kids,” she said. “It’s hard to see your grandson go through this.”

She added, “It just takes a split second. If my daughter wasn’t there, I have no doubt we would be planning a funeral where my grandson would be dead.”