On a Saturday evening in late July, Beth Shapiro went for a bite at the Uptown Pub, a laid-back and unpretentious bar at the corner of Lemmon and McKinney avenues. She sat on the patio, where she spotted Cain, a large (140 pounds) friendly looking mastiff. As she petted the dog's back, the dog suddenly turned its head and latched onto Shapiro's right arm. She went to the emergency room, where she received stitches.
Turns out, Shapiro wasn't Cain's first Uptown Pub victim. Three months earlier, the dog bit a man in the face as he petted him on the patio. The dog had also attacked a 5-year-old child at Keller Hamburgers in April and a pedestrian on the leg a few days later. Who'd expect such behavior from a dog named Cain?
Given the dog's past, Shapiro filed a lawsuit against Uptown Pub and Austin Broussard, the dog's owner, for allowing a dog with a known mean streak to hang out on the patio.
Shapiro declined to comment, and I couldn't find a number for Broussard. The guy who answered the phone at Uptown Pub said I would have to talk to owner Brian Joiner for official word, but he told me he told me Broussard and Cain are regulars. There was some sort of animal services hearing yesterday, where it was decided he would not be put down.
I asked if he could put me in touch with Broussard.
"There is absolutely no way I'm going to give out his number," he laughed. "That's sweet, though."
He told me to stop by for karaoke on Sunday. Maybe he'd talk more then.
