“It’s been kind of our worst nightmare when it comes to having dogs,” said Longview resident Peter Hansen, an accountant who got his first pit bull puppy 13 years ago after serving in the Navy.
Hansen and his wife, Krista Hansen, who works in the medical field, paid $1,200 for their pit bull Honey Bee five years ago. They bought a second pit bull, Magnum, for $1,000 two years ago. Both are papered, show-quality dogs, Peter Hansen said Friday.
“My dogs have never, ever acted viciously to anybody. We have people come over all the time,” said Hansen, who has three young children.
But after hearing that Honey initiated the gory attack on Flex the cat, the Hansens decided to have her put down. They didn’t want to risk criminal charges if Honey, officially declared dangerous by the Humane Society, somehow escaped again and killed something, he said.
“We couldn’t take that chance,” Hansen said. “Me and my wife, we’ve never been in trouble. We’ve never had any problems with the law. We’re just normal people.”
The Hansens spared Magnum’s life because he’s an indoor dog and obeys voice commands well, Hansen said. Wednesday, he’s going to appeal Magnum’s dangerous dog declaration in court.
“Every person and every dog deserves a second chance,” he said. “I tried to stop it before it happened. ... It was completely out of our control.”
On May 6, when the Hansens were at work, Honey and Magnum dug a hole under the fence surrounding their back yard in the 900 block of 19th Avenue. The dogs entered the sliding glass back door of the Anderson family’s home two blocks away in the 1100 block of 20th Avenue. Honey and Magnum walked through the house, jumped on the homeowner’s adult son in the living room, and then noticed the 11-year-old orange tabby cat on a windowsill.
When Flex made a startled noise, Honey pounced on him, according to Sandra Anderson, 54.
Magnum joined Honey in mauling the cat and dragging its body around the house. Despite beating the dogs with a closet rod, Kelly Anderson, 26, was unable to save the cat.
Authorities collected Magnum and Honey without incident. The Humane Society issued Peter Hansen a $771 ticket for the dogs running loose and for Honey being unlicensed. A few days later, the agency declared Magnum and Honey “dangerous.”
Under city ordinance, the owners must register a dangerous dog for a $250 fee, buy an orange “Dangerous Dog” collar, post “Dangerous Dog” signs on their property and obtain an additional $250,000 in liability insurance on homeowner insurance policies.
The day of the incident, Peter Hansen said, a family member had been hired to babysit the couple’s children at the house. She had been given strict instructions not to allow Magnum in the back yard.
Honey, relegated to the back yard due to housetraining problems, was in heat, and Hansen feared the dogs would get into mischief if left together unsupervised. Both of Honey’s parents were hunting dogs, and Honey had a strong prey instinct, Hansen said.
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| RIP Flex, torn apart in his own house |
Knowing that pit bulls are a “more aggressive breed,” Hansen said he and his wife tried to be extra responsible pit bull owners. His dogs escaping was “my biggest fear,” he said. When the couple moved into the house a few years ago, they immediately built an 8-foot cedar fence with a concrete barrier along the bottom to prevent digging. However, the neighbor’s fence on one side of the yard lacked the concrete barrier.
That’s where Honey and Magnum dug a large hole the morning of May 6 when the family member left Magnum unsupervised in the yard for 45 minutes, Hansen said.
The Hansen family was heartbroken when they learned of the dogs’ rampage at the Anderson house, but initially authorities told them not to contact them. Several days later, the Hansens visited the Andersons to apologize, answer questions and reimburse them $1,000 for the cost of professionally cleaning up the cat blood. The families parted on good terms, he said.
“We just want to do what’s right to make it better and put it behind everybody,” Peter Hansen said.
(The Daily News - June 3, 2013)
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