I hope your reenactment video helps you out, Mike. Glad to hear you were able to reevaluate the scene as it was that day.
I'd also like to add there's a big difference in where Mike lives and where I live. He's in a major city and I live in an outlying rural area on the border with the national forest in the Interior that has no incorporation to the borough. We have no (city) police or fire aid (they'll save the trees but your house will be a loss) despite paying outrageous property taxes each year. Our area has resisted becoming part of the city because of how costs would go even higher. We're quite a distance from the city as well so things like ambulance/fire/police take time to get out here and there is currently no patrol route for us. (We used to have a local volunteer ambulance and fire brigade but they simply couldn't cope with the costs of upkeep.) So animal control in essence has no "jurisdiction?" (I think that's the word I'm looking for) in our area. You rarely see a truck out here to pick up a dead animal on the road...that's about it.
Until we are legally part of the city we have to be able to 'talk to our neighbors to resolve disputes' which is not always possible of course. We can get state troopers out here but they've got bigger things to do than deal with pet problems. (You may have heard about the shootings that occured south of us in Tanana recently, a terrible tragedy.)
I, too, worry about what will happen if a child is bitten. But it will sadly take something like that to spark a debate and even then I think it's just politics as usual...the price we pay for living where we are.
What makes me angry is Mike DOES have these services and they're faffing around with what looks like a clear cut case. Really steams my broccoli when someone has to deal with lackadaisical public servants. When you have no choice but to pay their wages, you deserve your money's worth.