Two courts have ordered that the 4-year-old dog be euthanized, but Andree vows to appeal the case until Prada is allowed to return home. The case is set for another hearing in Davidson County Circuit Court on Jan. 27.
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| Nicole Andree insists her pit bull isn't aggressive and didn't "attack" other dogs. She believes it "fought" other dogs and that there's a difference. Um, OK.... |
“This has been crazy, but she’s my little baby,” said Andree, a 35-year-old real estate broker who now lives in Franklin. “If my dog had bitten or killed another animal, then I would put her down, but she lives with a 14-year-old poodle and gets beat up by him all the time.”
Cases such as Prada’s raise questions about whether the breed is violent or misunderstood, and often leave courts to weigh neighbors’ conflicting testimony.
“It is totally up to the judge to make a determination,” said Metro Animal Control Director Judy Ladebauche. “Certainly, when a judge listens to both sides … they make a determination whether this animal presents a danger to the community.”
Two East Nashville pit bulls that killed a neighbor’s Chihuahua last year were granted a reprieve when a judge decided to spare the dogs if they had microchips implanted and if they were prevented from running loose, even in their own yard. Ladebauche was not aware of any recent cases in which an owner prevailed once a court had ordered a dog destroyed.
Open door leads to trouble
Prada’s troubles began in January 2011 when she lived with Andree in Forest Hills and a houseguest accidentally let Prada out of the house. Andree, exercising in the woods behind her house, didn’t realize the dog was missing until half an hour later.
She called for Prada from a balcony while two friends searched the neighborhood. She called Metro Police when her friends told her Prada had been locked in a neighbor’s garage after a fight with a dog there. Prada later escaped and got into a fight with a different neighbor’s dog before police arrived.
According to the police report, responding officers found Prada tied to a tree. And, police found a neighbor, Cindy Chamness, with a bite on her hand. She said Prada had attacked her German shepherd. Chamness was bitten when she tried to break up the dog fight, but the report does not say which dog bit her. She declined to comment on this story, but her husband, Jay Chamness, said in an email to The Tennessean that his wife put her hands in the middle of the fighting dogs and she believes she was partially clipped by her own dog. She does not think either dog intentionally bit her, according to her husband.
While the officers were interviewing witnesses, Prada escaped again, ran across the street and got into a fight with four more dogs, the report said.
“At that point, an officer (used a Taser on) Prada,” Metro Police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said.
“Both probes hit her, and she immediately got off the other dogs, so the current was stopped. Within seconds, she was aggressive again, so the officer had to give her a second shock.”
[They keep using the phrase "dog fight" as in she went and got into a fight with another dog, which was 'game' to fight as well. What they should be saying is that this loose pit bull mix was running around attacking anything and everything it could find. These victim dogs were fighting for their lives, trying to keep from being mauled to death.]
With help from Andree, police led Prada to a patrol car, where she was held until Metro Animal Control arrived, the police report said.
Now, Andree visits her dog at Animal Control nearly every day. The $18-a-day cost of keeping Prada locked up is being charged to Andree. She owes Metro Animal Control about $6,000.
[Make note that she has paid her attorneys $17,000, but has she bothered to pay the facility which is housing and caring for her beloved pit bull mix? Nope.]
“There’s no question that she loves the dog,” Ladebauche said. “But loving it and being responsible are not the same thing.”
'No simple solution'
Andree said she kept her dog in the house unless she was outside on a leash. She did not have a fence around her yard or a dog pen, but it was not required.
Andree’s attorney, Jean Harrison, says that Prada doesn’t fit Metro’s definition of a vicious dog.
Under Metro’s law, “vicious dog means any dog which attacks and bites a person or animal on any public or private property without provocation.”
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| Despite attacking numerous dogs, Nicole Andree's lawyer says the pit bull isn't aggressive, it's merely "high-energy" |
Prada is a high-energy dog that can put other dogs on edge, in this case leading to an altercation between dogs, according to Harrison.
General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland said that’s not acceptable.
“A lady got injured, whether or not it was her dog or whose dog, it doesn’t matter,” Moreland said, according to a court transcript from a Feb. 17 hearing. “It was as a result of this dog getting out and causing the whole uproar.”
Moreland then upheld an environmental court referee’s decision that the dog be destroyed. A referee is a lawyer appointed to hear minor cases, including Metro code violations.
Andree has had four lawyers, but her fifth one, Harrison, is representing Andree for free.
“This is an unfortunate set of circumstances that led to an unfortunate outcome,” Harrison said. “I don’t think anyone involved is evil, and I don’t think anyone, Metro included, wants to see this dog die, but there is no simple solution to an issue like this.”
(The Tennesseean - Dec 31, 2011)
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