Thornton said he spent the morning of March 27 cleaning up his yard, but while taking his brush to the end of his driveway, he said he was attacked.
"I got about two thirds of the way down there, and it sounded like a herd of cattle coming down behind me," recalled Thornton. "Them ole dogs came right around the fence there and came right up here, and first thing I knew, one had me behind the leg there, behind the knee."
Thornton claimed three dogs attacked him, taking him to the ground biting his arms, legs, even his head. After hitting them with a broom stick, Thornton said the dogs finally stopped and ran away up the road, but for him, three stitches and several bumps and bruises remain.
"All I knew was two brindle looking dogs and a red and white one. They had a real bright orange collar on," described Thornton.
Animal Control Officer Phil Caves said just moments after Thornton's attack, he began looking for the dogs responsible. When he saw one dog with an orange collar in a resident's yard, he asked the owner if he had any others.
"He showed me through his door, and he had three pit bulls--two of them brindle in color, one brown and white, and all three of them had orange collars on them," said Caves.
Caves described the three as vicious and that they even bit employees, behavior he believes they were trained to exhibit.
"Mr. Weiand made the statement to me that he trained the oldest one, the one that was on the very end, to be aggressive because of where they lived in the neighborhood in Kansas City at the time," said Caves.
"We don't want that. Not around our kids. Not around us. Not around our neighbors," said Heather Weiand, the owner of the dogs.
She and her husband AnthonyWeiand said on the morning of the attack, Sarge, Thunder and Kannon never left the inside of their home.
"We did our normal routine. We put them in their kennels. We secured them with padlocks. We made sure all the doors were locked, and we left," claimed Heather.
Fifteen minutes after they returned, animal control arrived. The Weiands said the police threatened to kill their dogs if they did not hand them over to animal control. They complied, and that is where the three have remained since March 27.
"We just want them home. We miss them. My kids miss them. Whatever it takes to have them home--be it muzzles, special enclosures, moving out of the city. Whatever it takes, we will do it," pleaded Heather.
But, Thornton fears an attack like the one he suffered could happen to someone else and wants the dogs put down.
"I'd just assume to have them put down. Then, I don't have to worry about looking over my shoulder every time I go out in the back yard," said Thornton.
The Weiand's visit their dogs for an hour and a half each day, feeding them and changing their bedding. Though they said they've received little support in their town, they hope the attention they've received through social media will help save their pet's lives.
(THV - April 25, 2013)
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