The attack happened Thursday morning, in the 3500 block of Lundi Lane, in Prince George County.
Police say, the two pit bulls managed to chew through a chain link fence and a wooden fence to get off their owner's property and into a neighbor's yard.
We found the owner of the attacked dogs, Lori Potter, digging graves for the dogs she named Sport and Sweet pea.
"It's hard, because they were our life. Everyday, we'd come home from work and they were at the fence waiting on mommy and daddy," said Potter.
The two miniature pinschers were playing in their yard when neighbor Barbara Ferguson, heard commotion and came outside.
"I could hear the pit bulls growling and snarling - louder and louder," said Ferguson.
The pit bulls were chewing a whole through the fences.
"It was the size of a cantaloupe, maybe bigger," she added.
Ferguson called police, who showed up, investigated and left.
"Unfortunately, we don't have the authority to go on someone's property who legally has dogs - they're penned in the way they're supposed too - and take them away," said Captain Brian Kei.
An hour later, Ferguson called police, again.
"I could hear boards in the fence breaking. The hole progressed to over the size of a watermelon. The two pit bulls had broken through two fences - had killed one of my neighbor's dogs and had the other pinned to the ground chewing it," Ferguson explained.
By the time police returned, it was too late.
One dog was dead. The other died hours later at the hospital.
"It was an unfortunate situation. We don't have authority to take two dogs away because we 'think' they're going to get out," Kei said.
[Hmm, I wonder if, instead of two small dogs in the neighboring yard, it had been small children, if the police would handled it the same way? "People have rights. We can't just take their pit bulls because they're trying to chew through two fences to eat these babies."]
No one answered the door at the home of the pit bulls.
The owner of the pit bull has been cited for dogs running at large. Police say, more charges could be filed.
The pit bulls are in the custody of animal control.
The owner of the MinPins, Lori Potter, posted on comments: "[I] feel that Prince George County animal control is at fault. My husband and I had went and talked to them, and the first man to respond seemed as thought he had no clue what to do....said he had to leave to do sonething else....
RIP Sport and Sweet Pea |
(WWBT - Nov 9, 2012)