Returning to their Inkster home on February 11, 2006 from Saginaw, Tony and Sandra Price discovered their dog missing from their backyard and footprints of the dognappers in the freshly fallen snow. Lady, the Prices' 18-month-old boxer, has a sweet disposition and "would go with anybody," Sandra Price said. "She's a good dog," she said. "She just loves to jump on you and just play with you. You just rub her head, and she loves her treats and everything."
Tony Price followed the footprints as far as he could, but his wife could hear Lady's distinctive cough-like bark coming from the backyard of a home a few houses down and one street over. Ominously, she also heard the growling and barking of bigger, meaner animals. From a distance, Tony Price could see a handful of young men and at least two pit bulls on chains. He yelled to them, but they denied seeing Lady. The youths left, but Price later found Lady, who is now recovering, in that backyard bleeding profusely from the neck and barely alive. "Oh, she was really messed up," Tony Price said.
A 15-year-old boy who was arrested by Inkster police that night appeared in the juvenile division of Wayne County Family Court charged with animal cruelty. The boy's court-assigned attorney, Steven Makowski, asked for a personal bond for the boy, who is a ninth-grader at Robichaud High School in Dearborn Heights. But Family Court Referee David Perkins set bond at $15,000 cash, pending a pretrial hearing Feb. 21, 2006. If convicted, the boy could be given probation or placed in a rehabilitation program at home or in a residential facility.
According to a police report filed in the juvenile division of Wayne County Family Court, Inkster police officers saw Lady in the backyard of a home on New York Avenue "covered in blood (with) pieces of flesh and skin missing." The police report said the Prices' dog was being used to train two pit bulls to fight. Officers also saw bloodstains in the snow and two dog cages in the yard, although the occupant of the home denied having any dogs around, the report said. The boy, who does not live in the home where the dogfighting occurred, was seen walking a blood-covered pit bull on Sylvia at New York. The boy was arrested, but the dog got loose and ran off, police said. Inkster police officials did not return calls for comment.
Officers apparently are looking for at least one other youth and the two bloody pit bulls last seen running in the neighborhood around Michigan Avenue and Inkster Road. The Prices took Lady to an emergency veterinary service in Plymouth, where surgery was performed and she was placed on antibiotics. So far, the bill tops $600, they said. Because of a thick collar she wore, the pit bulls' teeth did not puncture her jugular vein, Sandra Price said. "They chewed her up pretty bad," she said. Case UpdatesA 15-year-old Inkster boy detained for allegedly allowing two pit bulls to attack a neighbor's pet boxer was released from the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility after a Family Court judge lowered his $15,000 bond to 10% of $3,000.
The boy, who pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges, was arrested Feb. 11, 2006 after Tony and Sandra Price found their boxer, Lady, in the backyard of a nearby home. The Prices said Lady has recovered from her injuries. The case attracted the attention of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has demanded that the boy be prosecuted and punished.
Wayne County Family Court Judge Leslie Kim Smith set a March 29, 2006 trial date. | Source: Detroit Free Press - March 13, 2006
Update posted on Mar 14, 2006 - 9:25PM |
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