Investigation underway after dog attacks child on Puyallup street
An investigation is underway after a dog allegedly attacked a child this week in Puyallup.
In a statement posted Friday evening, the Puyallup Police Department said the incident happened on Thursday, April 9 on West Pioneer Avenue.
Jeremy Hedrick, operations captain for Puyallup Police, told The News Tribune in an email that officers were dispatched for “a dog bite involving a 10-year-old child” at 4:49 p.m. He told The News Tribune that Metro Animal Services – which is located at 1200 39th Ave. S.E. – is leading the investigation.
At 1:36 p.m. on Saturday, PPD said Metro Animal Services has taken custody of the dog after its owner surrendered the dog to animal control.
“Metro Animal Services has taken custody of the dog involved in the dog bite incident on W Pioneer on Thursday. The owner agreed to surrender the dog this morning to animal control,” the post said. “Metro Animal Services is also talking with neighbors in the area today and continuing to conduct their investigation. The child’s physical injuries were minor and should make a full recovery.”
The city of Sumner operates Metro Animal Services under a partnership with the city of Puyallup. The News Tribune reached out to Carmen Palmer, spokesperson for the city of Sumner, but did not immediately receive a response.
What happened in the video?
The video – which was posted in the public Facebook group, “It takes a village: Puyallup,” – shows a boy riding on his bicycle on a sidewalk when a large black dog jumps on him and knocks him over. The child screams and tries to run away while the dog jumps on him, chases after him and repeatedly sinks its teeth into the back of the child’s shirt.
A black car honks loudly and pulls up to the sidewalk, and then a neighbor, Ryan Meeker, emerges and shouts “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Get back, get back!” The dog runs away and the man asks the child if he’s okay, and the child starts sobbing. The video then ends.
As of April 11, the post had received over 6,000 engagements and over 1,000 comments.
In an interview with The News Tribune, Meeker said he was driving to his daughter’s T-ball practice when he saw the dog attacking the boy, and immediately pulled over to help. Afterwards, he brought the boy to his parents.
“My biggest thing was making sure the kid was okay,” Meeker said. “[The parents] were just very thankful for me to be there and help save the boy. If you see the video, it could have gone a couple different ways: the kid could have got hit by a car, the dog could have really bit his neck, the dog could have got on top of him. It was milliseconds, seconds away to being more horrific of a scene.”
Meeker told The News Tribune he has since been in contact with the boy’s parents, who took the boy to the emergency room while Meeker went to his daughter’s T-ball practice. The boy’s parents allegedly told Meeker later that the boy had scratches on his knees and legs, as well as his neck and ear area. Meeker also said the parents allegedly learned the dog had not had updated vaccines.
“It kind of shook me up. I have a daughter, I have a dog, it all happened really fast,” Meeker said. “And then I have to go to T-ball practice, I had to kind of brush it off.”
The past 48 hours have been surreal for Meeker. He said he has had family members reach out after seeing the video on Facebook, and his social media has been swarmed with comments.
“I just want people to stop and help, help your neighbor and just do the right thing. That’s all I did,” Meeker said. “I don’t consider myself a hero.”
What has the police department and Metro Animals Services said?
In its Facebook post, PPD said they were grateful for the man’s help.
“We find [this] video and incident disturbing. We are so grateful for the citizen who stopped and was able to protect the child and stopped the attack by the dog. Chief Scott Engle has asked Metro Animal Services to immediately review their response to the incident as quickly as possible,” the post said. “The investigation of this incident rests with Metro Animal Services. The Puyallup Police Department will assist Metro Animal Services in any way we can with this investigation. We know our community is concerned about the incident and we will also keep the community apprised of the outcome of this incident.”
Metro Animal Services has not released a public statement yet.
In the comment section of the post, many people alleged the dog has been abused by its owners and has been aggressive with other people before. Hedrick said there is no history with this dog on PPD’s end.
“I asked South Sound 911 to review previous calls, and they were unable to locate any other animal-related calls that Puyallup Police have responded to involving the residence where the dog in question lives,” Hedrick said in an email.
The News Tribune asked Hedrick how long Metro Animal Services’s investigation will take, and what will likely happen to the dog. He said only Metro Animal Services can answer those questions.
Hedrick clarified the division of responsibilities between police and animal control.
“How that normally works on patrol is police will sometimes be dispatched to an animal complaint, an aggressive animal, something like that, but for most dog bite situations, it will then go to Metro Animal Services for their investigation, so officers may be part of the initial call [but] it almost always goes to Metro Animal Services for investigations.”
Metro Animal Services serves Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Algona, Edgewood, Milton and Pacific.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include quotes from Ryan Meeker. It was updated at 2 p.m. to include information about the owner surrendering their dog to Metro Animal Services, and the child’s injuries being minored. This article was also updated at 11:08 a.m. to include the time of the incident, the age of the child, and information from Jeremy Hedrick of the Puyallup Police Department.
This story was originally published April 11, 2026 at 10:50 AM.
