Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Military foster dog attacked

TEXAS -- Tom Hunt went on a daily dog walk on Sunday with his puppy Edge, when things took a violent turn.

"We continued to walk and I heard another boom and the dog had pushed the fence down and attacked my dog and myself," said Hunt.

A pit bull broke out of a neighbor's fence, and bit his dog Edge in the face. Hunt was also bit in the process of trying to get the attacking dog off of Edge. Authorities were not able to capture the dog that day.

To make matters worse, Edge is a foster dog. The Hunt's foster him as part of a government training program. Dogs like Edge go through vigorous training and end up in war zones.

"It's going to be a military dog, and nothing has been done about this," said Hunt. "These people have been warned two times previously about this animal and had previous attacks."

Pflugerville police say they've written two citations at the home for previous dog attacks.

"We've issued animal at large citations and what we call vicious animal that basically make an un provoked type aggression and attack," said Lt. Bill Anderson.

Hunt says the tickets aren't enough and tougher penalties should be enforced. He now has to get a series of 40 rabies shots because of the attacks; officials are unsure if the dog that attacked him is current on its vaccinations.

"Why has this been happening a third time?," said Hunt. "What if it were a 12-year-old, or a mother walking their baby and they got attacked? This should have never happened a third time."

Police say they are currently trying to contact the dog's owners in order to hand down tougher penalties, which could end in the pit-bull being put down.

"If we feel like the animal is such a danger to public safety, then we can request that the animal be seized and humanely euthanized," said Lt. Anderson.

Hunt hopes police will finally be able to put a stop to the string of attacks in his neighborhood.

"What does it take to get something done?," said Hunt. "Do we have to go through death before the police finally apprehends this dog?"

KXAN News tried getting in contact with the neighbor but like everyone else, we were not able to get in touch with anyone at the home.

(KXAN - March 22, 2012)