TEXAS -- During the wee hours of Nov. 4, loose dogs attacked Nalla, a 3½-month-old malamute, breaking her leg bones and nearly severing her paw.
The dog's owner, Stacy Gonzales, said she and her husband found Nalla in the backyard at 4 a.m., the puppy's leg bleeding badly. They rushed her to a vet's office, but it was too late. Nalla was put to sleep, and Gonzales had to break the news to her children the next morning.
Gonzales says a neighbor's vicious pit bulls attacked her malamute after they escaped their chains and their yard, and from the alley mauled her puppy's paw through a space near a fence gate. Nalla, Gonzales said, probably wanted to play and stuck a paw through a space.
But there's little Abilene Animal Control officers can do to remove a potentially dangerous dog from an owner unless an eyewitness confirms in writing that an attack occurred off the attacking dog's property, wasn't provoked and caused serious physical injury to a human or another domestic animal, according to Aaron Vannoy, animal services manager for the city.
"We have to follow the law to seize an animal, and there are specific laws in place that dictate when we can and cannot do that," Vannoy said.
Animal control officers may seize an animal that is running at large, is in imminent danger — that is, in a state close to death — or after receiving a written complaint confirming firsthand knowledge of the above criteria, Vannoy said.
When animal control officers investigated the case with Nalla on the afternoon of Nov. 4, they talked to neighbors — including those that Gonzales purports as the owners of the guilty dogs — and walked the area, but couldn't confirm which dogs were to blame.
Vannoy said his officers "felt comfortable" after talking with the neighbors suggested by Gonzales that their dogs weren't the culprits.
The issue highlights the largely "he said, she said" dilemma facing animal control officers. They respond to real problems that affect families and their pets, but often there's little they can do to fix a potential problem if hard proof isn't available.
Barking dogs, for example, impinge on a city ordinance.
Dogs may be barking when animal control officers arrive to investigate, but officers can't prove the dogs aren't barking because of the officers' presence. So, if after repeated offenses the annoyance progresses further to a potential citation, the issue boils down to one resident's word against another, Vannoy said.
Meanwhile, Gonzales, who used to run a day care out of her home, said that her children and her elderly grandmother are too afraid to go outside and that her neighbors carry bats with them to take out the trash.
"What is the world coming to when a dog has more rights than the people who are buying houses and paying taxes?" she said.
Abilene Animal Services had seized 3,416 dogs this year. That number includes animals picked up off the street, not just dangerous animals, Vannoy said.
(Abilene Reporter-News - Nov 16, 2011)
