posted May 13, 2010 03:26 AM         

The pit bull that attacked pop star Vanessa Carlton is scheduled to be put to sleep Friday.

The three-time Grammy nominee was bitten in the calf on May 2 while jogging near her parents' home in Shohola, a rural area near Milford. Her attacker was a 9-month-old female terrier named Bella.

Related Stories
Singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton bitten by pit bull while jogging in Pike CountyNow Bella is about to be labeled a dangerous dog by state officials. That designation requires several things the dog's owner cannot afford.

Bella was released Wednesday from a 10-day quarantine period imposed by the local dog warden. She's in great health with no signs of rabies, according to Ellen Howarth, region supervisor for dog law enforcement under the state Department of Agriculture.

Bella was playing in the yard of her owners Ben and Jo Anne Teichberg with two of the family's other dogs. Bella ran through the electronic containment fence on the property and bit Carlton, leaving five puncture wounds that required antibiotics.

Carlton filed a formal statement with officials about the incident. "Based on that statement we feel there is enough basis to file dangerous dog charges," Howarth said.

Bella met two of the criteria for a dangerous dog designation. The attack occurred off her owner's property and it was unprovoked, based on Carlton's statement.

Owners with dogs labeled dangerous in Pennsylvania face hefty expenses to keep their animals. There's a $500 annual registration fee. The dog must be spayed or neutered, microchipped and the owner must maintain a minimum $50,000 insurance policy or surety bond, which could cost between $3,000 and $4,000 a year, on the dog.

Giving the dog away to someone else is not an option — at least in Pennsylvania. The dog's designation follows it, although officials have no authority outside the commonwealth.

If the Teichbergs don't euthanize the dog, they will be issued a citation. They will have 10 days to make a plea to a district justice followed by a hearing. In the meantime, Bella would have to be confined to the house, muzzled when taken outside and can't leave the property unless going to a vet. That's a quality of life the Teichbergs feel is unfair to Bella.

Carlton continues to recover from her injury and was back jogging a few days after the attack.

Carlton was en route to London on Wednesday and unavailable for comment. But her sister, Gwen Carlton, said Venessa hoped the dog could be rehabilitated.

"(Vanessa's) a positive loving person who has a dog of her own," Gwen Carlton said. "She would never want anything bad to happen to the dog. But the consequences are that this family had a 9-month-old pit bull who wasn't trained well enough."

The dog warden told the Teichbergs if Bella was not euthanized by Friday, the state will file dangerous dog charges.

The Teichbergs originally scheduled Bella to be euthanized today. They pushed that back to 4 p.m. Friday.

Ben Teichberg hasn't told his girls yet. The youngest is 13.

He'd like to keep the dog, but he just can't afford the cost. "I have four kids and a wife. I'm an average Joe," he said.

And rather than allowing the state to euthanize Bella, he thought it would be better to do it himself.

"I don't want the dog to be put into a cage waiting for it to be put to death," he said. "The more humane thing would be for the dog to be with her family and we'll take her to the veterinarian, and she'll think she's going for a regular checkup, and she'll just go to sleep and not wake up."

Teichberg just can't make sense of the entire process, which he characterized as "guilty until proven innocent."

"I can't believe because a puppy with no prior history of any aggression made a mistake as an excited puppy this means to them she deserves to die," he said.