SOUTH CAROLINA -- George Grepaly says a walk with his wife and three small dogs quickly turned terrifying Monday afternoon. "I saw the pit bull walking out steadily," Grepaly remembers.
"Not running, or racing, but very determined." Before he knew it, Grepaly says he was surrounded, and fighting off what neighbors call a "vicious" dog. "I said hey stop and go back," says Grepali.
As Grepali was knocked down by the dog, neighbor Larry Hand rushed in to help. "I was working on the sidewalk and heard the commotion," says Hand, who ran after the dog with a hammer. "I didn't know what it was going to do."
Grepali got away with scratches and bruises on his legs from the incident, but neighbors on Avon Drive in Taylors are frustrated.
"It's not a good situation," says Hand. They claim the family that rents the home at 606 Avon Drive owns two animals, one "pit bull" looking dog and a boxer/pit mix. Residents claim both dogs have come after neighbors since they've lived there.
"We're at our wit's end," says Sandi Newell. "We walk with sticks and clubs in our hands, and they don't care." Newell says the dogs are kept in the family's back yard on "tethers" or short leashes, but often break free. "I want to know what has to happen for animal control to do something."
According to Greenville County Animal Control, officers have responded to the home twice in the last year, "warning" the residents both times. The reason no citation was issued in those cases is because officers did not have enough evidence against the dogs.
"The important thing for residents to understand is it takes two sources, two independent sources for us to further an investigation," says Bob Mihalic, with Greenville County. "It can't be a he said she said situation."
On Tuesday, the pit bull was not in the family's yard, but the boxer mix remained. The owner told Seven on your Side she was giving the pit bull away to the Humane Society, and "planned" to give away the other dog as well.
"We need our neighborhood back," says Newell.
(WSPA - Feb 21, 2012)
