Mark Melotik, environmental health manager for the Kenosha County Division of Health, said the determination was made Thursday.
"After you put it all together, it’s an unprovoked incident where one dog was killed and three adults were injured,” he said.
The pit bulls’ owner, Donna Gardner, said she plans to do what she must to get the dogs back.
“I’m not just going to give my dogs up,” she said.
Gardner said she feels like she’s being run out of town, and she insists the dogs are not vicious.
[Someone should tell her that 'denial' isn't just a river in Egypt.]
Vicious dogs may not be kept in the city of Kenosha, but other communities allow them, with special licenses.
The dogs are currently at Safe Harbor Humane Society, serving a 10-day bite quarantine that ends July 16. Amanda Angove, executive director at the shelter, said she cannot release the dogs without the OK of the county Health Department and the Kenosha Police Department.
Both sides tell storyLois Mogensen wishes she had known more about the dogs that lived in the house just north of hers.
On Saturday, as she walked her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Tanner past the home in the 7600 block of 36th Avenue, he was attacked by the two pit bull mixes that lived there. He died later that day of the injuries he received from the two dogs, which are now under quarantine at Safe Harbor Humane Society.
It was early Saturday morning, about 8:30, according to police reports, when Mogensen, 79, took Tanner for his walk.
“He was just prancing along, wagging his tail,” Mogensen said in a Wednesday interview.
They were simply walking down the sidewalk, she said, with Tanner looking straight ahead, when the dogs exploded from behind the fence. The white dog — Princess — was first, she said, followed by the darker dog, named Gotti.
“I went down on my knees and tried to get Tanner out,” Mogensen said. “It was so quick and fast, I couldn’t get a hand on Tanner.”
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| Mrs. Morganson and Tanner live in the house to the left; the pit bulls and their owner lives in the house to the right |
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| The pathetic fencing used to contain killer dogs |
She screamed for help.
Pit bull owners nearbyThe keepers of the pit bulls were in the backyard with the dogs when the attack began. Gardner was standing on her back porch steps, inside the fenced yard. Her 14-year-old daughter was outside, too.
Gardner said she saw the top of Mogensen’s head as she walked along the sidewalk. When Mogensen and Tanner got to the gate area, Gardner said, they appeared to stop for a little while. Then she saw a small dog nosing his way past the back gate.
That’s when Gotti went after Tanner, she said. They shouted Gotti’s name and tried to get him to leave the other dog alone. Gardner said she yanked on the back gate to get Gotti to release the other dog.
“All hell broke loose,” Gardner said Thursday. “I got on top of Gotti and pushed (Tanner) away. I told her to go. I just wanted her to be safe.”
Neighbor involved, injuredNick Kalagis was in his backyard, playing with one of his dogs when another of his dogs started whining and tugging at his pant leg. Then he heard Mogensen screaming for help and ran to her side.
He picked Tanner up and took him to Mogensen’s home, pursued by the dogs.
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| RIP Tanner |
“I had [Tanner] up against my chest,” Kalagis said. “They were trying to pry it out of my hands.”
He was bit several times. He needed six stitches to close a deep wound on his right forearm, where a dog’s teeth had cut down to the bone, and tangled a tendon. He also had bruises on his right shoulder, from where Gotti kept lunging at him, bouncing off.
Lois Mogensen’s thumb was bitten, and emergency room staff told her one of the dog’s teeth may have gone all the way through her thumb. Andy Mogensen, Lois Mogensen’s adult son, was also bit on the hand.
“That heals,” Kalagis said. “The other stuff doesn’t. Hearing that ripping noise while you’re holding that dog is awful.”
Struggle continuedGardner and her daughter followed the dogs around the front of their house, toward Mogensen’s home.
Gardner said she tried to pry open the side gate, held closed by a combination of barricades, a latch and a bungee cord. Gotti was still going after Tanner, and she wanted to open up the quickest route to get her dogs back into their space. Princess was off to the side, Gardner said.
When Andy Mogensen came outside he went down on his knees on the concrete, trying to get Tanner away from the pit bulls. His knees were torn up in the struggle, he said, and he was bitten on the hand.
He pushed the dogs away, but as soon as he’d push one off, the other would come back.
“I kept yelling them to get their dogs,” Andy Mogensen said. “The [owners] were more afraid of the dogs than anyone.”
Gardner said Andy Mogensen and Kalagis were hitting her dogs, and that her daughter, Samantha, was injured by the blows.
Samantha was holding onto Gotti during part of the attack, Gardner said. On Thursday, Samantha was wearing a black sling. They reported Samantha’s injuries to the police, Gardner said.
Once the dogs were under their control, Gardner left with them.
“I ran inside, grabbed the leashes, jumped in the car and took off to Racine,” she said. “I wanted a little time with my dogs.”
[She means she fled the scene with the dogs, fearing they would be taken from her and destroyed.]
She dropped the dogs off along with her 22-year-old son, Nathan, at one of his friend’s houses, and then returned home to talk with police. Later, she brought them to Safe Harbor.
[She brought them back because, thankfully, the police threatened her with arrest for concealing a bite dog and hindering an investigation.]
“This is, like, the worst thing that could ever happen,” Gardner said. “Especially to an elderly lady, and that’s her pet. I know how I feel and my dogs are still alive.”
Gardner hasn’t gone over to talk to the Mogensens, she said, because she hasn’t wanted to make things worse.
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| Blaming the victim: Gardner insists is the dead spaniel's fault that her pit bull broke through the fence, attacked, mauled and killed it and attacked others |
“I am sorry Tanner died,” Gardner said. “(These dogs) never fought. (Gotti) was trying to protect his domain. He was trying to protect me.”
Legal action possible
The Mogensens and Kalagis have spoken with an attorney and may pursue a case against the Gardners over the attack.
Their attorney, Paul Gagliardi, said Wisconsin has strict liability for dog owners. Dog owners are responsible for the full amount of any damage their dog does to people, property, domestic animals or livestock.
“From what I saw and heard from fairly reliable witnesses, these dogs, unprovoked, attacked a lap dog, a very small lap dog, and killed it, and injured, physically, human beings and traumatized them,” Gagliardi said.
“It was very traumatic. You could easily see how traumatized they were. They are still suffering from some of the emotional effects of this attack. I think the dogs probably were vicious. It’s unfortunate, but there’s a purpose for that strict liability law and the process we go through to see if the dog is vicious or not.”
Gagliardi said they have nothing against pit bulls as a breed, but stressed that “people who own dogs have to be aware of their responsibility.”
(Kenosha News - July 11, 2013)
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