'Potentially dangerous' Kelso dogs returned to owner

WASHINGTON -- A judge decided today the fate of two German Shepherds accused of attacking and biting neighbors.

Officials from the Cowlitz County Humane Society said the dogs' owner, Ingrid Sacha, has a history of letting her dogs run loose. Sacha has been fined hundreds of dollars in the last few months for different violations.

According to Dee Wirkkala, a Cowlitz County District Court Administrator, a judge decided the dogs will be allowed to go back home Sacha. The "dangerous dog" declarations were also dismissed Thursday.

However, if officials believe the dogs pose a dangerous risk in the future, the dogs can be confiscated again and the entire process will start over of whether the dogs will be returned to Sacha, put in the custody of the Cowlitz County Humane Society or put to sleep.
 

Sacha has said her dogs are not dangerous. She usually has seven German shepherds in her Kelso backyard. Two of them, Lug and Marley, were in quarantine labeled "potentially dangerous" dogs.

Officials from the Humane Society said Lug and Marley attacked a friend of Sacha's, a neighbor who often spent long hours at Sacha's house and who brought two cups of coffee over to her house one morning in November when she was not home.

 The neighbor, Elizabeth Elder, said the dogs bit her on the legs, hands and face, opening a gash that required eight stitches to close.

"Honestly, I think they should be put down," Elder said about the dogs in a Jan. 27 interview. "If they would have got me a half inch lower, they would have gotten my jugular vein and I may not be here today."

(KATU - Feb 9, 2012)