Court records show 30-year-old James Joseph Lanpher (aka Jim Lanphr) of Sioux Falls was fined $35 in October for letting two animals at large and failing to get them vaccinated. Then, in December, Lanpher was cited again for loose dogs and fined $70.
About 7:20 a.m. Sunday, police were called to Beadle Greenway Park, west of Cliff Avenue and 14th Street, where two pit bulls had mauled a 34-year-old man who was playing basketball. An officer shot and killed one of the dogs after police said it acted menacingly toward a second person on the bike path and then began to approach the officer.
The mauling victim, who lives near the park, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after he was bitten on the buttocks, thigh, hand and arms. Sanford USD Medical Center could not provide information on his condition Monday, and no one answered a knock on his apartment door.
Police determined the two pit bulls belonged to Lanpher and his girlfriend, who live about one-third of a mile away on Sherman Avenue, just south of Lewis Drug store at 10th Street and Cliff.
Officers had arrested Lanpher for aggravated domestic assault on his girlfriend around 5 a.m. Sunday after a party.
Lanpher has not been charged in relation to the subsequent dog attack, but Lt. Jerome Miller said he presumes there will be additional charges. An initial police report indicated Lanpher let the dogs outside without a leash.
But Lanpher’s father said it wasn’t the owners’ fault that the dogs got out of the house.
Jim Lanpher, who lives next door, said his son and his son’s girlfriend were outside when a friend walked out of the house to see what was going on. When the friend opened the door, he said, the dogs followed and ran away.
“I don’t know where (police) come up with this story that he intentionally let the dogs out or that he even let the dogs out. I’ll testify that they weren’t even in the house or near the door. I was standing 20 feet from the back door when they came out,“ he said.
The girlfriend’s pit bull, which was not shot by police, has been placed in quarantine for 10 days. Miller said it either could be returned to the woman or euthanized if declared vicious.
Sioux Falls has had a number of dog bites in recent years, some involving pit bulls. But Miller, who works closely with animal control officers, said serious attacks such as Sunday’s incident are rare.
“I certainly remember cases over my career, maybe two or three times, that something like this has happened,” he said. “Thank goodness it’s very rare.”
Ashley Bartholomaus, a Sioux Falls resident and pit bull advocate, said a dog’s behavior is a direct result of how its owner treats it.
“When you open your house as a dog owner, treat it with respect and it’s going to be a great dog,” she said. “You just have to train any dog. The breed doesn’t make any difference.”
However, some cities have placed restrictions on pit bulls and other large and powerful breeds.
In 2009, Tea considered a ban on pit bulls but settled on an ordinance requiring owners to carry liability insurance, post signs warning that a pit bull is on the property and muzzle the dogs when they leave home.
The town of Hurley banned all pit bull, Rottweiler and Doberman pinscher breeds in 2005.
(Argus Leader - June 5, 2012)
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