Vet warned couple that dogs were dangerous before deadly attack

MICHIGAN -- Three months before two large dogs mauled a jogger to death on a rural Metamora Road, a veterinarian who examined them found them “aggressive” and “dangerous” and warned one of their owners that the dogs needed to be treated by an animal behaviorist, according to testimony in a Lapeer courtroom this afternoon.

“She lunged at several staff members when we were trying to get her weighed. ... she was turning and trying to bite me,” veterinarian Shelley Wallace testified, referring to Princess, a 91-pound Cane Corso, and one of two involved in the July 23 attack on Craig Sytsma, 46.

The dog’s owners, Sebastiano Quagliata, 45, and Valbona Lucaj, 44, are charged with second-degree murder in the killing.

Valbona Lucaj, 44 and Sebastiano Quagliata, 45

Wallace’s testimony came in the first day of a preliminary examination to determine whether there is enough evidence to send the case to circuit court for trial. It will resume on Aug. 29 before 71A District Judge Laura Barnard. Quagliata and Lucaj were in the courtroom, wearing orange jail garb, unable to post $500,000 bonds.

The veterinarian, employed at Veterinary Animal Medical Center in Lapeer, said Lucaj began bringing the dogs to the clinic when they were puppies in 2013, and that they appeared mild mannered.

But when Princess and Tony, who weighed 108 pounds, were brought to the clinic for routine shots on April 11, Wallace was alarmed. They were both wearing muzzles, growling and threatening. In order to give the dogs shots, she said, she, Lucaj, and two of Lucaj’s children had to pin” them up against a wall. Wallace said she was only able to do a 15-second exam of the dogs because they were so aggressive.

“They were trying to bite through their muzzles,” she said. Princess was “turning around and trying to get to me.”

Lapeer Prosecutor Tim Turkelson introduced the clinic’s records of that visit as evidence. Wallace had marked “DWB!!!” at the bottom of each of the dog’s records. “What does that stand for?” Turkelson asked.

“Dog will bite,” Wallace said.

The courtroom was packed with Sytsma’s family, who sat quietly in the second row. The defendant’s family and friends, some of them crying, sat in the second row. As the defendants were led from the courtroom, Lucaj, with tears running down her cheeks, blew a soft kiss to a little girl, and mouthed the words, “I love you.”

Prosecutors at the next hearing are expected to present at least two other people who were bitten by the dogs, a pattern, they say, that should have alerted the defendants that they could be deadly.

If convicted, the owners face up to life in prison.

The two dogs and a third adult dog have been euthanized. Seven puppies have been placed with a rescue league in Texas but will be sterilized.

(Detroit Free Press - Aug 16, 2014)

Earlier:

• Lapeer prosecutor says he would have acted if told of prior dog attacks
• Police, animal control did little as dogs attacked walkers, records say
• Illegal aliens facing murder charges, deportation after dogs killed jogger
• Deadly dog mauling: A timeline of events for fatal attack in Lapeer County
• Two massive cane corso dogs maul to death Michigan jogger, owner could face charges