TV5 caught up with the person who shot them and he says he did it in self-defense.
Kim Norton says he loves his chickens and did everything to protect them from pit bulls that came to his backyard last Sunday.
"I hollered at them, raised the stick and tried to holler at them and say, ‘get out of here,'" said Norton, who lives in Portsmouth Township, south of Bay City.
The Bay County resident says one of the dogs wasn't leaving. "That's when he attacked me and I found that there was another dog, another pit bull," said Norton.
With stick and hatchet in hand, Norton said he did his best to scare the dogs away but it didn't work. "I fended him off for probably, it wasn't that long, maybe about thirty seconds," said Norton.
He says the animals went back to the chicken coop a second time. That's when Norton went in the house to get his gun. By the time he got back outside, "the black one ran right toward me growling and snarling. I wasn't going to let him get close and I dropped at about 15 yards," said Norton.
Then, he said, the second dog decided to attack. "The other one heard the shot, came running at me and I shot that one, too," Norton said.
Both dogs died and their owner is angry. He's created a Facebook page blasting Norton for what he did. But Norton tells TV5 he did not intend on killing the pit bulls.
"I tried to scare them away. If it would've been my intention to begin with, I would've gone and got the gun the first thing," Norton said.
Norton, a dog owner himself, says the animals left him with only one possible option - firing his gun to save his chickens. He can't understand why anyone would criticize him for that.
"If you can't protect your dog and keep your dog safe - don't blame it on somebody else when they protect their own property," said Norton. The homeowner told TV5 this is the second time he's had to deal with stray dogs in his yard.
TV5 reached out to dog owners through Facebook by sending them messages to call us so we could talk to them about this story. So far, they have not responded.
Bay County Animal Control handled the follow-up to the incident but they aren't releasing details because the case may end up in court.
(WNEM - Oct 12, 2012)
