Since mid-December, Tammy Perez says 2 pit bull type dogs have been terrorizing her mother's 10-year-old Australian Shepherd named Cutter and dozens of times they called Animal Control to take care of the problem.
"They chase the fence line, and try to dig underneath it to get in. On January 14th they were successful. They destroyed pickets and pulled them off the gate," Tammy said.
Once inside the backyard, the 2 dogs viciously attacked Cutter. Tammy's mother Dianna ran outside and tried to pull Cutter into the house. Bloody and severely injured, he was rushed to the vet with around 30 bite marks and tears.
Cutter hung on for several days but died Tuesday morning. "It was his yard, his domain. He was supposed to be safe," Tammy said with tears filling her eyes. "When I went to the vet, I didn't pick up our dog; I picked up a collar… that's all we have now."
Tammy says this all could have been avoided if Animal Control would have helped when they called prior to the attack. "We requested them to put up traps and they said that had to be approved. The traps were delivered the day after Cutter died," Tammy said.
KCBD called Animal Control and spoke to the director over the phone. He told us Dianna did in fact make several calls about the dogs. He also said approval is not needed to set up traps. We asked why they weren't put up sooner or before the attack, and the director replied "I don't know".
He refused to do an on camera interview so we called the City of Lubbock. They sent us this statement:
"Animal Control officers were contacted by Ms. Wilson on January 14, 2013, regarding two loose pit bulls. Animal Control Officer J.R. Martinez responded to the address shortly after 7:00 p.m. to search for the dogs and called two additional officers to help search after he arrived. The three officers were unable to locate the dogs. A search of Animal Control and 311 telephone logs revealed a dangerous animal call from Ms. Wilson's phone number on May 3, 2012 and January 14, 2013, but telephone logs showed no dangerous animal calls from her phone number between those dates including the month of December."
Tammy and Dianna say officials are lying and that they have made numerous calls. They also say only one officer came the day of the attack and barely searched for the pit bulls. "I can line up the whole street to tell you that didn't happen. Animal Services can claim what they want. They're negligent in this dog's death and they did not do everything in their power to help us capture these dogs," Tammy said.
Although they have more than $900 in vet bills, Tammy says they don't want money and they will not file a lawsuit. Instead, she says all they want is for Animal Control to admit they didn't do everything in their power to help Cutter.
"I just want them to admit they did not do the right thing by us. They didn't do the right thing by Cutter, and he suffered because of it. Nothing will bring him back, but maybe they can change the way they do things so it won't happen again. They're negligence is going to cost a child or adult their life," Tammy said.
(KCBD - Jan 24, 2013)
