At a hearing held at the Mt. Vernon Avenue office of Animal Control on Thursday, Feb. 7, Kern County Animal Control determined that the dogs are dangerous, but can be released back to their owner if he meets certain requirements within a 30-day period.
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| Piper the mini horse was chased, terrorized, attacked, mauled, killed and eaten by two pit bulls in late January. |
The owner of the dogs, Jeffery Frost, will be required to have the dogs micro chipped and install a kennel with a heavy duty welded wire fence, cement floor and locks to hold the dogs. He also must pay a $500 fine. Efforts to reach Frost were unsuccessful.
Borgna is not happy with the decision. She wanted the dogs euthanized.
"We were told by Officer Sugg, who was on the scene, that they would not get the dogs back," Borna said. "But at this public hearing today, Animal Control said it was their first offense that they had record off. He could have the dogs back in 30 days if he met all the requirements and paid the fines."
She said her concern is that since the dogs have killed once, they may do it again.
"It could be a person," she said. "They said if the dogs get loose or approach us to give them a call. The damage would be done before they could respond. As one of our witnesses said, if I go out and murder somebody and this is my first offense do I get off?"
Borgne said that when the incident occurred her dogs woke her at about 6:30 in the morning barking and nudging her to get up. She went outside with them and they continued to act up. After coming back in she looked out her back window where her horses are and noticed they were all staring off in one direction. One had his tail up like something was wrong. She went back outside and went to where her arena is past the horses.
"When I got to the other side of the stalls, I could see some other horses next door looking in the same direction," she said.
"I climbed through the arena and went to the second stall and these two pit bulls had my miniature horse down, at the time I didn't know that they had already killed him. They were eating him at this point.
"I started yelling, 'My God they got my little horse. Get out of here, leave him alone.' One turned on me and started toward me, growling and showing his teeth. The other dog stayed on top of the horse. Both of them had blood stained faces."
She said she called 9-1-1 and Tehachapi Police responded, but county animal control said it would be an hour before they could get there.
Before officials arrived, Borgna said she was afraid that the dogs would attack her and shot one of them with a .22 gun.
Borgna' daughter, Shirley Toler said she heard her mom scream, "Oh my God. Here he comes! Why isn't anybody doing anything?!" followed by a shot.
"As I turned I could see the red nosed pit bull coming toward my mom and after she fired her gun he took off," Toler said.
The officers then went across to the neighbor's house where the dogs live to question them and the dogs were taken into custody by animal control.
Borgna said she has spent years raising horses in her Tehachapi home, located in an area on the north side of the city with larger lots that allows horses.
"They're my family," she said. "This is big, financially, emotionally, mentally, everything. Piper was a big part of our family." Photo courtesy of Roxanne Borgna
Piper the mini horse was killed by two pit bulls in late January.
(Tehachapi News - Feb 12, 2013)
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