Thursday's first defendant was Scrappy, a 1-year-old pit bull charged with biting a 4-year-old girl while he ate his bone under the kitchen table.
The girl, the daughter of a friend of Scrappy's owner, Michael Wright, received nine stitches on one side of her face and four on the other, Pasquotank County animal control officer David Watkins testified.
Wright claimed the girl provoked the dog by poking him and putting her face near his jaws while he chewed the bone.
"I love my dog," Wright said. "He is not vicious and he is not dangerous. He is a baby. I want my dog back. I miss him so much."
Wright called upon others, including neighbors, to say the dog is friendly.
"My son jumps off the porch onto Scrappy's head, and no problem," testified neighbor Amanda Poe.
The ordinance, passed in March, allows animal control officers to label dogs who attack humans or other animals as vicious, dangerous or potentially dangerous.
Vicious dogs can be euthanized.
For lesser charges, owners may be forced to register the animal with the city, put up a warning sign, keep the dog confined and get a $100,000 insurance policy against serious injuries - or all of the above, said city attorney Bill Morgan.
Dog owners can challenge the charges before a board consisting of Councilman Kem Spence, animal shelter director John Graves and dog owner Peggy Watts.
And challenge they did Thursday night.
Linda Lewallen contested the nature of the injuries that her boxer, Roscoe, inflicted on real estate agent Lynn Weeks-Bulman when she came to the house Lewallen rents to check out complaints.
Weeks-Bulman said Roscoe barked, then bit her on the wrist and waist.
"They were deep scratches," Lewallen said.
"No, they were puncture wounds," argued Weeks-Bulman, with bandages still on her wrist and photographs of the injuries. "The dog bit me."
The board determined Roscoe to be potentially dangerous and ruled that Lewallen had to register the animal with the city, confine him, put up the warning sign and get the insurance policy. But Lewallen may not have to abide by the ruling because she has since moved outside city limits, Morgan said.
In the case of Bambi v. Buttercup, Amanda Barco testified that she was walking Bambi, her small mixed breed, to the mailbox on June 13 when Buttercup, a pit bull, escaped from a hole in her fenced yard and attacked.
Barco called a 911 dispatcher who told her to hose the dogs. When Elizabeth City Police Sgt. Carl Kirby arrived, he used a Taser on Buttercup, who ran back into her yard.
Buttercup's owner, James Andrew Kelly III, blamed it on her pregnancy.
"Buttercup is not a vicious dog," Kelly said. "It's just like human beings - when they get pregnant, they get these moods."
The board determined Buttercup is potentially dangerous and ordered her registered, confined at home and the pregnancy terminated. However,
Kelly will not have to buy the $100,000 insurance policy because Buttercup did not attack a person.
In Scrappy's case, the board ruled that he had been provoked, clearing him of charges.
[Why do we only hear the owner's testimony that the child allegedly 'provoked' the dog? What does the child say? What does the child's parent say?]
Wright and his fiancee, Patricia Harris, collected their dog at the animal shelter Friday morning.
"A happy ending," Harris said, as Scrappy jumped up and down, licking their faces.
(The Virginian-Pilot - July 14, 2012)
