“It has been a very sad couple of days for those of us on Washington Boulevard,” resident Terry Holmes said. “Maddie was a neighborhood favorite ... everybody adored her.”
Maddie was being taken for a walk by her owners on June 9 when two dogs on a corner lot slipped their heads through a fence and attacked her. She died two hours later.
Birmingham Police say the same two dogs (a Dalmatian/boxer mix) had attacked a different dog last month in May, but the owner of that dog did not want to press charges.
“The dog was bit through the fence,” Birmingham Police Cmdr. Scott Grewe said. “The dogs were fenced in and the victim did not want to press charges or the owner held responsible — he just wanted it documented. There were no prior complaints about the dogs.”
This person is partially responsible for what happened to Maddie. By refusing to cooperate with police to try to get some restrictions placed on these dogs, they basically gave them carte blanche to do it again. And they did.
Holmes said the owner of the two dogs approached her several days after the fatal attack and CLAIMED that he gave the dogs to a shelter. Even with the dogs removed from the neighborhood, Holmes still went ahead and submitted her petitions to the city on Wednesday.
OK so the owner claims he dumped his killer dogs at the shelter. For what? Euthanization? Or to be put right back on the adoption floor and recycled to a new, unsuspecting family with new names and a fake sob story about how the dog came from a hoarding situation?
“We’re brokenhearted that we lost our little Maddie,” she said. “Birmingham is such a dog community — so many people have dogs and it’s just so important your pets are safe when you’re outside walking them.”
Holmes said she managed to quickly collect over four pages of signatures, as many of her neighbors were familiar with the two dogs.
“I have a neighbor with a 1-year-old who won’t go by their house when she’s walking,” Holmes said. “Birmingham is a walkable town ... we have to take tougher steps when a vicious dog is reported.”
Maddie’s owners declined to comment about the petition drive. Holmes said the owner of the two dogs tried to reach out to the family, but was told it’s too soon.
City Commissioner Stuart Sherman said the residents clearly want the city to review the incident, as evidenced by the petitions that were submitted.
“From the commission’s standpoint, we won’t get involved in the actual incident because that’s a criminal matter,” Sherman said Wednesday. “But as dog owners, we sympathize with the family who lost their beloved pet. Vicious dogs or bad dog owners don’t have a place in Birmingham.”
(Freep - June 16, 2016)
