Anchorage assembly member fined for unleashed dog attack

ALASKA -- On Friday, Anchorage Assembly member Tim Steele was fined $75 after his unleashed German shepherd killed an elderly small dog in Spenard on Tuesday.

Artist Kay Marshall had been walking on Hillcrest Drive with her 13-year-old diabetic Lhasa apso, Buttons, on a leash when they passed Steele’s home.

Marshall said Steele’s door opened and two large dogs bounded down the doorstep. One, an 8-year-old female named Bristol, ran across the street, grabbed Buttons, flipped her on her back and tore at her stomach, according to Marshall.

Marshall said she started screaming. Steele, who represents West Anchorage, appeared in the front door, ran over and pulled his dog away by the collar, she said. Steele, however, said he called Bristol by name from the driveway and she let go of Buttons. Steele said he then ordered Bristol into his car.

But with Bristol under control, Buttons stopped moving and appeared to be in shock, Marshall said.

Steele offered to take the injured dog to the vet, but Marshall said she wanted to take Buttons home first. She later took Buttons for medical treatment, but that night, the dog died.

Bristol, after two days of observation at Anchorage Animal Care and Control (the city pound), was declared dangerous enough to be required to wear a muzzle in public for at least the next two years.

A contrite Steele said he has taken responsibility for what happened, including paying Marshall's vet bill.

“It’s really a mistake I made that the dog has to suffer for,” Steele said Friday.

In an interview earlier in the week, Steele said he apologized to Marshall and said he was at fault. Both he and Marshall said Buttons, at 14 pounds, didn’t provoke the larger dog.

Steele also defended himself as a dog owner, saying: “I don’t think I was grossly negligent. I think the dog was under control.”

He said he typically lets his dogs out early in the morning in the front yard before getting in his truck, and they very rarely wander. Steele said he doesn’t walk his dogs in the neighborhood without a leash. He maintained his dogs were under voice control while in the unfenced front yard.

Animal control investigators concluded, however, that the dog was not under voice control, leading to the fine, said Laura Atwood, public relations coordinator at Anchorage Animal Care and Control. City law requires animals to be restrained at all times in public, except in a dog park.

Steele said he understood Marshall’s pain at her loss.

“I tried to make it as good as I could for her,” Steele said. He added that dog fights are “not a unique situation” in Anchorage.

On Tuesday night, when Marshall came to his house and told him Buttons had died, Steele wrote a check for $600 to cover the veterinary bill, he said.

He also offered to take Marshall to the pound to find a new dog, but Marshall declined.

“I don’t know if I ever … you don’t want a new dog, you want your dog,” Marshall said.

After Marshall filed a complaint with Anchorage Animal Care and Control, Steele said he took Bristol to the pound for observation. Boarding there costs several hundred dollars, he said. Atwood said the dog was released Friday after the investigation was completed.

Steele said he planned to change the morning routine for his dogs.

“I will not let them out of the house without being on a leash,” Steele said.

Marshall, who is 71, recently returned to Anchorage from California to live in her family’s house, which is close to Steele’s. She said Steele is well-intentioned. But she said dogs should be kept on leashes in neighborhoods, and Steele has the power to set those rules as an Assembly member.

“Why doesn’t everyone leash their dogs?” Marshall said. “My dog had no chance.”

(Alaska Dispatch News - Aug 7, 2015)