City Judge Sherry Paty on Thursday declared two dogs potentially dangerous after hearing proof that one killed another dog and the other bit a neighbor several times.
When a dog is declared potentially dangerous, the owner may pay to retrieve the dog from the McKamey Animal Trust, but must keep the dog under strict control for an 18-month period when it can come off the list.
Ashley Schendel said she took two of her dogs outside and spotted three large dogs that she said run in a pack around the neighborhood. She said one of the dogs - a black lab - picked up her Yorkie in its mouth. She said as her dog was thrashing around, she screamed, "Let her go."
Ms. Schendel said she did not see blood on the five-year-old Yorkie that ran and hid once inside. But she said she was advised by a Facebook friend that the blood may show up later. She checked her dog again and found "blood all over" it.
She took the dog to an animal hospital and it died that night.
"She was my baby," Ms. Schendel said.
She told the owner of the black lab named Jackie, "The neighbors hate your dogs. You need to keep them up."
The owner, Tamara Harp, said she is prepared to do so, including erecting a 110-foot fence that is six feet high and may cost $2,600. She will have to pay McKamey $1,350 when Jackie is picked up.
The dog will stay temporarily with her daughter on Runyan Drive.
Ms. Harp is also liable to cover $993.02 in vet expenses and to later pay for a replacement Yorkie for the Schendels. Judge Paty said, "It is reasonable that she get one that is similar" to the deceased dog.
McKamey officials said Ms. Harp has had a number of prior citations, including an occasion when a number of dogs were taken and she kept Jackie and another dog.
In a second case, Gregory Duckett said he went to do yard work at a house he rents when he was attacked by two dogs, Snoopy and Little Bit, owned by the next-door neighbors.
He said he was bitten several times after falling to the ground. "It was very traumatic," he said.
Mr. Duckett said he got up and pulled out his pistol, but one of the dog owners, Heather Revis, begged him not to shoot. Judge Paty said he would have been justified had he done so to protect himself.
He said the dogs are able to jump out a window or over a fence and terrorize residents. He said one neighbor had to get up on top of a car to get away from them.
Mr. Duckett said his wounds included swelling the size of a softball on his back.
Another dog owner, Haley Freeman, said she had never seen Snoopy be aggressive and said "he must have been provoked." Judge Paty said the dogs should not have been allowed to run at large.
It will cost $440 to reclaim Snoopy and $255.44 to reimburse Mr. Duckett for his medical expenses. Had he gone to a hospital, "It probably would have been in the thousands," Judge Paty said.
In another case, bus driver Joseph Sheets said he continually has trouble with his neighbor's pit bulls coming onto his property.
He said, "They are really aggressive, they crap in my yard, and one of them got in my house one time."
Mr. Sheets said the neighbor, Tito Roblero Perez, worked on his cars on his side of the property line. He said he finally got a survey and then built a dividing wall.
Mr. Perez was fined $50 and costs on each of the charges he faced and ordered to keep his dogs on his property.
Carl Blackburn, pastor at St. John United Methodist Church, said he has taken steps to curb the barking of his dog, Hatch, since an anonymous neighbor turned him in. He outfitted him with a barking collar.
Rev. Blackburn was given the name of the person who reported him, and he said he will send them a letter he had considered handing out to those in the neighborhood, saying he wanted to be a good neighbor.
The minister said the family recently moved here and Hatch "has separation anxiety. He's on Prozac."
Of the letter, he said, "Hatch wrote the letter. He's an amazing dog."