“(I'm) still re-living it," she said. "My hand is still healing."
Mohan continues to receive medical treatment for injuries suffered when she tried intervening during the attack on July 18, when two dogs on Diamond Circle in Northfield Estate came after Zoey.
Mohan was pleased to hear the Washtenaw County Prosecutors Office on Tuesday authorized misdemeanor charges against two men -- the dogs' owner and his father.
A 26-year-old man who owns the dogs will be charged for having an unlicensed dog. His father, a 54-year-old man who allegedly let the dogs out the door that evening, will face two counts of allowing dogs to run stray.
The two dogs await their fate at the Humane Society of Huron Valley. A number of things could happen with them, from a judge ordering them euthanized to them being returned to the 26-year-old, according to his attorney Michelle Radloff.
The breeds of the dogs have been previously mis-reported to news outlets, including The Ann Arbor News, Radloff said. One dog has had a DNA test and is a Rhodesian ridgeback-boxer mix, and the other is a Staffordshire terrier, or pit bull, according to Radloff, who specializes in dog law.
Radloff says the two dogs have been evaluated by a professional. A court hearing was adjourned last week to allow for the evaluation, something that irked Mohan.
"They’re still trying to say these two dogs are not dangerous. Why are these people trying to fight for their animals?” she said, adding that even though she is a lover of canines, the dogs should be euthanized. "I think they should definitely go down."
Radloff said the professional who evaluated the dogs deemed the incident to be a result of "owner error." With the right training, the dogs would be fine going to separate rescue shelters, according to Radloff.
“I don’t think they should go back to their owner, but I don’t think they should be put down,” Radloff said.
The attack
Mohan and her boyfriend took Zoey for a walk around 8 p.m. July 18. The couple live on the same block of Diamond Circle as the dogs, only about eight residences away.
Zoey -- a 3-year-old poodle mix that weighed about 15 pounds -- stopped to sniff something, Mohan said.
Around this time at a nearby residence, police allege the 54-year-old man opened the front door and the two dogs tore out the front door.
Mohan said one of the dogs approached Zoey. Radloff said the dog that initially came out and started sniffing Zoey was the Rhodesian ridgeback-boxer mix.
What happened next is a blur for Mohan, but Radloff contends Zoey began growling because of the sniffing, which prompted the two dogs to attack.
“It was pretty terrifying," Mohan said. "Neither of us saw the second dog coming. That's when all hell broke loose."
Mohan said she tried grabbing Zoey to save her, which is how her hands were severely chewed up, landing her in the hospital for more than a week.
“It just happened so fast. I was bleeding. My dog was bleeding,” she said.
Radloff suggested Mogan should not have tried to intervene.
“She stuck her hands in between," she said. "It's never a good idea to get in the middle of a dog fight. Both parties should have had better control of her dog."
[Oh yes. Stand there and watch your pet get ripped to pieces.]
When it was all over, Zoey was dead and Mohan's hands were chewed up.
Checking the wrong box
Northfield Township police were notified, but because the officer was hoping someone with more professional animal control experience would decide what to do with the dogs, the dogs were back at the house within 24 hours, officials said.
The officer checked a box that essentially suggested home quarantine if there was overcrowding at the Humane Society of Huron Valley, according to Mogan. She was told the officer put an asterisk next to the box he checked in an attempt to indicate the severity of the attack. In that way, the officer was hoping the dogs would be kept there, officials have said.
HSHV officials have said they did not send the dogs back because of overcrowding, but because the home quarantine box was checked.
Mohan said it seemed that both sides were blaming each other for the release of the dogs back home.
“That made me very, very angry,” she said. “My heart sank. I was devastated.”
Weeks later, on Aug. 7, a judge signed an order removing the dogs from the home when Northfield Township filed a civil suit in the district court under the state dangerous dog statute.
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| RIP Zoey |
Radloff says they are attempting to perhaps settle out of court, offering to send the dogs to rescue shelters and pay Mohan's medical bills. The attorney says they have not heard back from Mohan about the settlement.
If the case stays in the courts, a judge could decided what happens with the dogs as soon as the next court hearing on Sept. 3.
As for the misdemeanor charges against the father and son, they are not scheduled to be arraigned until Sept. 26 in the 14A-1 District Court in Chelsea. The News is not naming them until that time.
(The Ann Arbor News - Aug 21, 2014)
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