Bobby J. Moyer, who lives on Rochester, brought photos to show the city council as she proceeded to talk of an incident involving two dogs which belong to her neighbor who lives behind her 150-foot by 50-foot lot.
Moyer told the city councilmen that her two children, along with two of their friends, were out playing in the yard. The four boys witnessed two dogs, who Moyer said were pit bulls, come into her yard, chase their cat until the female dog grabbed it by the tail, took it to the fence where the male dog was standing, passed the cat to the male dog while the female dog crawled back through the fence, and then devoured the cat.
Moyer said the kids were terrified. She said she called the police and then spoke with the owner of the two dogs about the incident.
“I told the gentleman who owns them if that dog gets in my yard again, I will kill it. He said ‘Yeah, and I've got a 9mm to take care of you too',” she said. "Now, I don't know about you all but I don't take threats lightly. I've lived there since 1979 and I've never had problems with my neighbors and I'm advising you all [the council] to do something about these two particular dogs because I'm not going to have my own kids scared to go out in their own yard.”
Moyer's two neighbors, Mary Klalac and Thomas Miracle, both live near the same area where the dogs are being kept. Klalac said the dogs have dug holes under her fence and have gotten into her yard, despite the fact she has both a chain link fence and a six-foot privacy fence. The dogs, she said, have also chewed the corners of her steps.
Moyer pointed out in the photos that she showed to city council that the dogs were in bad shape physically, with their ribs showing.
“We are tired to death of pit bulls - now you guys listened the other day about people that holler ‘Oh the pit bulls, they're pets, they're this, that, and the other’' and that's fine for a pet but these people that are training these dogs to fight, it's overbearing and we are tired of it,” Miracle told the council members.
Miracle said this has been an ongoing issue. He said he even has a police officer who lives across the street from his residence and said he was told the police have issued the owner of the two dogs a total of 10 citations in the last few weeks.
Members of the city council said the police have done all they can do, and council member Ronnie Carter said the court system seemed to be the ones that were not coming through on getting the issue into court.
“It's up to the judge to take care of these issues, maybe that is where the system is failing you at," said Carter. "I understand completely and this new ordinance we are getting ready to have drafted up will hopefully take care of a lot of this.”
Miracle said he called Monday morning because the pit bulls were out in his yard. He said he called 911 Friday and said he would kill the dogs next time he caught them in his yard.
"How many citations is it going to take?," he asked. "Does the whole neighborhood just pack up and stay in the house because a few people want to keep pit bulls? Why can't we have our own place and peace without people just letting their dogs run loose?"
Miracle said if he has to videotape the incidents that are going on and send it to the news stations in the region, he will. He told the city council "one way or another, this issue was going to get straightened out."
"Banning the dogs is not right, that's not the thing to do, but these people that are continuously being called on and won't take care of the dogs, won't keep them up, and are training them to fight, that has to be taken care of," said Miracle.
Safety Director James Pursifull said he agrees wholeheartedly and offered to put in a few phone calls Friday to the courts and see if the issue could get pushed up for a court date.
“We are not out to destroy those dogs, we just want people to keep them on their own property," Miracle said.
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