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| Dog Warden with woman presumed to be pit bull owner |
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
West Third Street and Penn Avenue
Mansfield, Ohio (Richland County)
1pm
Normal
On West Third Street, a family puts their two dogs, a Maltese/Chihuahua mix and an Australian Cattle Dog, out into their yard. Nearby, a neighbor takes his dog, a Dachshund, out into his own fenced yard. On nearby Penn Avenue, a woman lets her boyfriend's three dogs out into her fenced yard. The dogs are related, two adult male littermates and their mother. The dogs escape the yard at some point, and run away.
Not
The loose dogs are pit bulls. The two males go to West Third, where they enter the first yard and attack the family's dogs. They kill the Chihuahua mix and badly injure the cattle dog, biting his stomach, neck and legs so badly he needs emergency vet care. Then they go to the Dachshund's home, enter his fenced yard and attack him, ripping him from his owner's arms to break his back. His owner is later forced to euthanize him.
Response
Richland County Dog Warden Dave Jordan cites the pit bull owner's girlfriend for two counts of dog at large, a minor misdemeanor, and the pit bull owner himself for three counts of lacking licenses for the pit bulls, another misdemeanor. He also deemed the pit bulls dangerous, a designation which carries multiple regulations for the owner. Jordan says police also have the option of charging the boyfriend with having pit bulls in the city of Mansfield, which has an ordinance banning the breed. This would be a first-degree misdemeanor.
Despite the fact that the breed is banned in the city in which the owners reside and have been keeping them, the pit bulls are apparently returned to the owners. It's worth noting both that Mansfield's law against pit bulls has been under recent attack by pit bull owners, and that the Richland County Dog Warden's Office and Shelter Facebook page currently sports a profile pic of a fighting-cropped pit bull. Mansfield may ban pit bulls, but the county shelter is enthusiastically adopting them out. They also, according to Jordan, adopted out the cattle dog a few years ago. He's quoted in a 2016 article about the ban, saying that he doesn't believe in banning pit bulls but that the city needs fewer as he says his facility is now around 75% pit bulls.
Pit bull owner says
The female pit bull owner claims the pits are her boyfriend's, and that they're indoor dogs, and that she just let them out for a moment and that the wind must have blown open her gate.
Consequences
Two dogs are brutally killed on their owners' properties.
One dog is badly injured on his owner's property.
Two sets of dog owners are forced to see their pets killed and mauled; both are forced to pay for vet work.
Two pit bulls have a fun outing.
A female pit bull owner gets to lie to various people while looking distraught
The pit bull owners apparently get their killers back despite the fact that the breed is illegal to own in the city in which the owners reside.
Links
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/2017/03/01/one-dog-dead-two-injured-another-dog/98590646/
Mansfield's ban on pit bulls
http://www.ci.mansfield.oh.us/pdf/legislation/505.03-vicious-and-dangerous-dogs.pdf
http://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2016/03/25/law-director-plans-revisit-mansfields-pit-bull-ban/82170546/
MANSFIELD - Two dogs were killed and one injured by two pit bulls running at large, Richland County Dog Warden Dave Jordan said Wednesday.
Jordan responded to the scene on Penn Avenue shortly after 1 p.m. to talk to a woman whose boyfriend owns three pit bulls, the two males who attacked neighboring dogs and their mother dog, who was not involved in the attacks.
A woman at the scene told the News Journal she put the dogs, including the two suspected of the attacks, out in a fenced yard. The wind blew a gate open. She was distraught and said the dogs are indoors dogs and were outside only a few minutes.
Jordan confirmed the woman told him the wind blew open a gate.
Jordan said the two male pit bulls ran first to the backyard of a residence on West Third Street, where the owner had a Maltese/chihuahua mixed breed dog in the backyard. Jordan said the pit bulls attacked and killed the dog. Also in the backyard was a cattle dog. Jordan said the two pit bulls attacked the cattle dog and it suffered a 7-inch laceration to its stomach and several puncture wounds to the neck and chest. It remains at a veterinarian's office undergoing treatment.
"The cattle dog was adopted from the Richland County Dog Shelter several years ago," Jordan said.
Next the two pit bulls went to a second West Third Street property and attacked a Dachshund, who was in a fenced-in backyard. Jordan said the homeowner told him he was holding his dog when the pit bulls ripped the dog from his arms and injured it, breaking its back and paralyzing the dog to where it had to be euthanized.
The Mansfield Police Department report was not available Wednesday.
Jordan said police could charge the dogs' owner with having pit bulls in the City of Mansfield, against the city ordinance, which is a first-degree misdemeanor.
Jordan said he cited a woman who lives on Penn Avenue on two counts of dog at large. He said the first offense for dog at large is a minor misdemeanor.
Jordan cited the woman's boyfriend at the same Penn Avenue address. He is the owner of the two dogs who attacked neighboring dogs. He was charged on three counts of not having dog tags or licenses, also misdemeanors.
"And I deemed the two dogs dangerous," Jordan said. He said the pit bulls are 2 years old, one white and the other brindle.
Jordan said there are 18 laws an owner of a dangerous dog must abide by, including mandatory neuter of the dogs, dangerous dog signs posted on all sides of the residence, special dangerous dog license, the dog cannot be on a leash longer than 6 feet, and if a dangerous dog lives at a property, the property must be locked.
"If they sell or give away the dangerous dogs, they must contact my office," he said.
Jordan said he felt bad for the dog owners whose pets were killed or injured.
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