A 7-year-old female retriever, Dakota, was released from the Marin Humane Society's custody Friday after her owners agreed to what animal control officials say are some of the harshest restrictions ever placed on a Marin pet. The second retriever, Godiva, died April 8 while impounded.
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| A cautionary sign hangs on the fence at 1934 Indian Valley Road on Tuesday, June 14, 2011, in Novato. One of two dogs on the property was declared vicious after attacking a woman in Novato. |
"Something like this is highly unusual and certainly not something I have seen during my six years here," Carrie Harrington, a humane society spokeswoman, said of the legal saga.
The settlement signed by owners Douglas and Marsha Halcrow, of Novato, specifies that Dakota must be muzzled and leashed whenever she is walked and that she cannot be walked with another animal. She cannot be walked within 1.5 miles of the Halcrows' house on Indian Valley Road to prevent territorial aggression.
The Halcrows are barred from housing another dog with Dakota, and they must place a "conspicuous sign" on their property with a "symbol warning of the presence of a potentially dangerous dog."
"These are some of the most serious restrictions that we have seen come from the county," Harrington said.
The saga began on the morning of Dec. 15, 2010, when Novato resident Amy Silva walked her Jack Russell terrier, Sally, on Indian Valley Road.
Two retrievers later identified as Godiva and Dakota charged toward the terrier and attacked her, Silva told animal control officials. They pulled and tore at Sally, causing severe bleeding.
When Silva attempted to pull Sally to safety she was knocked to the ground by one of the retrievers. One retriever clamped onto Silva's thigh, pulling and yanking while the other stood on her chest, snapping at her face and attempting to bite her throat, according to testimony.
It appeared Godiva and Dakota were trying to kill Silva and her terrier, said a North Marin Water District employee who happened upon the scene and scared off the retrievers.
"It was pretty bad," the water district employee, Matt Baccei, said in a December interview with the Independent Journal. "It's just one of those things you kind of see on TV."
A neighbor who witnessed part of the attack testified that she thought the retrievers would have killed Silva had she not been rescued.
Silva was treated at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Terra Linda for deep puncture wounds on her thigh and other bite wounds on her arm, cheek and lower lip. She had bruises on her shoulder, back and thigh.
The Halcrows did not return calls seeking comment. Douglas Halcrow testified before a county hearing officer that he was leaving for work the day of the attack when he noticed the dogs had escaped from an outdoor breezeway. They had escaped a few times before but had never attacked a person, he testified.
Silva declined to comment through her husband, Tony Silva.
"She is still having nightmares over this," Tony Silva told the Independent Journal in January.
The dogs were found near the scene of the attack and captured by the humane society, which held them during the legal proceedings. At the Halcrows' request an animal behavior specialist attempted to evaluate the retrievers, but the specialist said she could not finish because the dogs were too aggressive.
"We brought them both out, but they attacked each other, and I felt it unsafe to continue," Trish King, a Marin Humane Society behavior specialist, wrote in a memo.
On Jan. 11, at the recommendation of the humane society, a hearing officer with the county district attorney's Consumer Protection Unit ordered that both dogs be designated "vicious animals" under county code and euthanized. The Halcrows hired an attorney and appealed the decision in Marin Superior Court.
Over several months, their attorney negotiated a settlement with county officials that would spare the retrievers' lives and downgrade their designation from vicious to "potentially dangerous."
On April 8 with the negotiations still ongoing, Godiva -- like Dakota, a 7-year-old female -- died at the Marin Humane Society after undergoing spay surgery. The results of a necropsy are pending, but there were no apparent complications with the surgery, Harrington said.
Included in last week's settlement is an option to transfer Dakota to a relative's home in Waddell, Ariz., under the same restrictions.
Tony Silva declined to comment on the settlement, but in a February interview he said the dogs should be put down.
"For me, if these were my animals, after seeing what they had done ... I would have had them euthanized," he said.
A separate personal injury lawsuit filed by Amy Silva against the Halcrows is still pending.
Dog attacks that require Marin Humane Society intervention are infrequent, and it is even more unusual for an incident so severe that euthanization is recommended, Harrington said.
"Everyone wants that to be a last resort," she said.
The rare settlement was allowed because the Halcrows agreed to severe restrictions on their pet, she said.
"Nobody comes away winning in a situation like this," she said. "It was a tragedy."
(Contra Costa Times - June 15, 2011)
