Dog Bites KUSA Anchor During Newscast

DENVER (CBS4) - A dog who was rescued from icy waters in Lakewood on Monday bit KUSA's Kyle Dyer on the face on Wednesday morning, sending the TV news anchor to the hospital.

The incident happened during the "My20" morning news broadcast on KTVD, which is owned by KUSA.

The dog, whose name is Max, was detained by animal control officers after the incident, according to a co-worker of Dyer.

Dyer was described as being in fair condition at the hospital a few hours later.

The dog is a white 86 pound Argentine Mastiff. He ran onto the ice at Smith Reservoir near Kipling and Jewell apparently after seeing a coyote and chasing after it.

Copter4 captured images of the dog stuck in the water at about 5:20 p.m. Max was swimming around but he was surrounded by ice.

Watch video of Monday's rescue.

A few minutes later a member of the West Metro Fire ice rescue team who was attached to a rope crawled out on the ice, grabbed Max and he and the animal were pulled to safety.

Denver Animal Control Director Doug Kelley told CBS4 it was "a pretty major bite," so they impounded the dog. The dog is at Denver Animal Shelter and will be held for a 10-day quarantine to check for illnesses, as is done with any dog bite that breaks the skin.

The dog's owner was cited for three violations -- a dog bite, a leash law violation, and a rabies vaccination violation because the dog didn't have a vaccination.

Kelley said the dog appears healthy.

Statement from KUSA News Vice President Patti Dennis

The dog bite accident that happened today at 9News was unfortunate and certainly not expected based on what we knew about the dog and his owner. Our goal was to unite the owner with the rescuer for a nice segment. We are all thinking of Kyle and her recovery. I have reached out to the dog owner, Michael Robinson, as well as he came to the station on our request.

We have enjoyed having dogs and all kinds of pets in our building for nearly 30 years as a part of our Petline9 program. We will continue to support animals and the well-being of a community that supports animals. We are going to look at our procedures when animals come into our building as part of learning from this accident. Our goal is continued support of Petline9 but we want to be very careful to protect our people, the volunteers and the pets themselves.

We love Kyle and what she and her family do for this community. We also love animals and will continue to do all we can to use 9News to improve animal welfare in Colorado.