VIRGINIA -- 6-year-old Nebraska Nuckels was playing in her yard on a pleasant Sunday afternoon when, according to her mother Michelle, a neighbors dog approached and changed all of that. "She went to pet the dog that we knew and before we knew it he just attacked her."
Leaving a scar on her tiny face, requiring more than 100 stitches and several surgeries to repair.
The dog owner, 19 year old Seth Taylor, is charged with dogs running at large and harboring or owning an unvaccinated dog.
The dog, named Tyson, is now quarantined in the SBK Animal Control Center.
Director of the center, Rich Crino, tells me if the community wants tougher animal control laws, the state gives them the power to do so. "The state will make general rules that are open to interpretation. They depend on the municipalities and the counties to tighten them up."
Crino goes on to say that they are currently working on enacting several ordinances including one focusing on aggressive dogs.
Something that may need to be done considering the number of cases the county handles annually.
We did some digging at the Sullivan County Sheriff's Department and we discovered that in the past year alone there's been 75 complaints against dogs.
36 of those have been bites.
averaging out to 3 per month.
Michelle Nuckels hopes this case will bring the change necessary to protect her family and children across the county. "I want some kind of justice out of it. A dog like that and not to have it chained up and it could just happen to any kid out there. And I just thank the Lord that it didn't get, wasn't worse than it was."
(WCYB - March 26, 2012)
