A Pickens County woman whose dog was killed by a neighbor’s pit bull last month said she is worried that other animals or worse, children, may be victimized next if law enforcement doesn’t act. Law enforcement leaders are stressing the need to continuously report animal nuisance issues to show a pattern in order to seek proper solutions.
Patsy Pilgrim lost her 14-year-old Pekingese Poodle mix, Sophie, on Feb. 9. She was outside when a neighbor’s dog ran onto her property and took Sophie by the neck.
“We were so distraught. I have raised that little dog,” Pilgrim said. “The look on that little dog, knowing her throat was slashed and just torn and her backend. I just, if it was a child. That’s what I’m afraid of.
”Deputies responded to Pilgrim’s home on Parrott Drive in Six Mile to document the attack and by March 9 a hearing was held in magistrate court. A magistrate ordered the PIT BULL owner to pay $250 in restitution to Pilgrim, said Pickens County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Creed Hashe.
The dog owner did not deny the incident and agreed to the restitution payment in installments in lieu of the $1,087 fine or 30 days in jail penalty he was facing for violating a county ordinance, Hashe said. The dog owner has not responded to requests for comment.
The Sheriff's Office handles loose animal reports on a routine basis but has to rely on the reporting of residents to take action, especially in cases involving violence, Hashe said. According to county ordinance, it is unlawful for an animal owner to allow an animal to run repeatedly at large away from their property as to constitute a nuisance or menace to the person or property of someone else. The ordinance states that an animal deemed to be a habitual nuisance may be impounded.
Hashe said deputies can only do what ordinances and laws address. "Sometimes some of the laws and ordinances haven't been revised and it doesn't give us a lot of leverage sometimes," Hashe said. "The whole animal issue is a hot topic in all counties right now." The County Council is responsible for routinely looking at ordinances and seeing whether revisions are needed, Hashe said.
In May, County Council decided to move animal enforcement operations under the responsibility of the Sheriff's Office. “Animals will find a way to try to get out and get loose,” Hashe said. “We’ve got to be notified if there’s an issue. It makes our life easier to get a situation like this resolved as quickly as we can. We’ve got to know there’s an issue before we can address anything.”
Pilgrim said she's seen her neighbor's pit bull routinely outside her own home, one of about a dozen single-family houses and mobile homes on Parrott Drive. The road sits behind the Breckenridge subdivision near Six Mile Elementary School.
Hashe said the Animal Enforcement Office does not have any other reports about the specific dog other than the Feb. 9 attack. "This is just the business we operate in in law enforcement. People don't call us. When they call us, they're upset and some event has happened," Hashe said. He said if deputies are notified, they can come to a neighborhood and install cameras to capture evidence. If a spate of incidents happen, neighbors may link it to one animal but there's no way of knowing without hard evidence, Hashe said. Hashe encouraged Pilgrim to take photos or videos the next time she spots the pit bull in her property. Until then, he said, there’s not much more law enforcement can do.
“She’s upset, I believe, because he was allowed to keep the dog. We can’t seize this dog unless the judge orders that and because there’s no history there, the courts do not immediately mandate that the dog be seized if it’s a one-time incident,” Hashe said. “It would have been different if the dog attacked a person, but this dog attacked another dog.”
Pilgrim said she feels the restitution order was made because she mentioned that she paid $300 for Sophie after she was born. “I don’t care about the money,” Pilgrim said. "I’m trying to be a good neighbor, but I cannot sleep and rest knowing he’s still got that dog over there. If he’ll do it to a small animal, what do you think he’ll do to a small child?”
The Sheriff's Office handles loose animal reports on a routine basis but has to rely on the reporting of residents to take action, especially in cases involving violence, Hashe said. According to county ordinance, it is unlawful for an animal owner to allow an animal to run repeatedly at large away from their property as to constitute a nuisance or menace to the person or property of someone else. The ordinance states that an animal deemed to be a habitual nuisance may be impounded.
Hashe said deputies can only do what ordinances and laws address. "Sometimes some of the laws and ordinances haven't been revised and it doesn't give us a lot of leverage sometimes," Hashe said. "The whole animal issue is a hot topic in all counties right now." The County Council is responsible for routinely looking at ordinances and seeing whether revisions are needed, Hashe said.
In May, County Council decided to move animal enforcement operations under the responsibility of the Sheriff's Office. “Animals will find a way to try to get out and get loose,” Hashe said. “We’ve got to be notified if there’s an issue. It makes our life easier to get a situation like this resolved as quickly as we can. We’ve got to know there’s an issue before we can address anything.”
Pilgrim said she's seen her neighbor's pit bull routinely outside her own home, one of about a dozen single-family houses and mobile homes on Parrott Drive. The road sits behind the Breckenridge subdivision near Six Mile Elementary School.
Hashe said the Animal Enforcement Office does not have any other reports about the specific dog other than the Feb. 9 attack. "This is just the business we operate in in law enforcement. People don't call us. When they call us, they're upset and some event has happened," Hashe said. He said if deputies are notified, they can come to a neighborhood and install cameras to capture evidence. If a spate of incidents happen, neighbors may link it to one animal but there's no way of knowing without hard evidence, Hashe said. Hashe encouraged Pilgrim to take photos or videos the next time she spots the pit bull in her property. Until then, he said, there’s not much more law enforcement can do.
“She’s upset, I believe, because he was allowed to keep the dog. We can’t seize this dog unless the judge orders that and because there’s no history there, the courts do not immediately mandate that the dog be seized if it’s a one-time incident,” Hashe said. “It would have been different if the dog attacked a person, but this dog attacked another dog.”
Pilgrim said she feels the restitution order was made because she mentioned that she paid $300 for Sophie after she was born. “I don’t care about the money,” Pilgrim said. "I’m trying to be a good neighbor, but I cannot sleep and rest knowing he’s still got that dog over there. If he’ll do it to a small animal, what do you think he’ll do to a small child?”
1 comment:
Pit bulls were bred for killing other dogs, and dogs get killed by pit bulls every single day. Dog fighting is a felony, but we have allowed pit bulls out of the pits and into our communities with disastrous results.
Sophie is not an "incident". A dog getting violently killed is not a minor occurrence. I am heartbroken for every single dog owner that witnesses their dogs brutally mauled and killed.
Animal Control's job is to protect every single pit bull, as if their lives matter more than victim dogs' lives. I prefer that pit bulls become extinct through Breed Specific Legislation, and humanely dirt nap any pit bull that ends any life, be it animal or human. There are plenty of dog breeds out there, and we don't need a dog aggressive dog breed that likes to kill its own kind prowling the streets.
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