What hurt worse than watching her pet being attacked by two large greyhound dogs and fighting them off, was watching the owner of the attackers walk away with no fines or punishment.
On May 5, Carol Jones' Yorkshire terrier, Mackie, sat in her yard on Ledgewood Drive when her neighbor walked by with her two greyhounds and lost control of them.
Mackie was no match for the greyhounds, and Jones believes he was killed instantly, when they snapped his neck.
"They tore the fur from his neck," she said. "His intestines were exposed."
Jones' neighbor was charged with two misdemeanor counts of vicious dog attack, but all charges were dismissed without prejudice, she said.
Because of the city's current ordinance that doesn't consider dogs vicious until after a first attack, the greyhounds' owner is back to walking the dogs in front of Jones' house.
Jones said she's concerned for other dogs and children in her area, because she has been told when dogs attack once, they'll do it again.
As the law stands, a dog must attack twice to be considered vicious, unless it is a pit bull, Jones said.
"It basically gives dogs one free bite," said Toni Eddy, the city's law director.
"We want to change the law so that the first time it would be considered a dangerous dog, and the owner would be held responsible," Jones said. "There's nothing I can do now. I want to change the law so this doesn't happen to someone else."
Jones' councilman, Thomas Trutschel, R-1st Ward, and Eddy support the change.
"It's hard for me to believe we don't have an ordinance to protect our residents," Trutschel said.
If residents allow their pets to roam free, they must pay a $50 fine and court costs, Jones said. But when it came down to the "vicious attack" on her dog, she said, her neighbor didn't have to pay anything.
Jones doesn't plan to give up on the issue.
"I'm going to shake every bush," she said.
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/ap...508240301/1002