A Fowlerville woman has started an online petition after her dog was attacked by another dog and later died.
Leticia Spagnuolo says her dog Pearl was attacked by a stray dog while she was in her own fenced in yard on Saturday, May 28th. She says a pair of dogs had gotten loose and were “terrorizing” the neighborhood of Power Street in Fowlerville.
After one of the dogs, a 100 pound Bull Mastiff, got into her fenced yard, Spagnuolo says she was able to pull the dog off Pearl, who only weighed twelve pounds, but not before she suffered several serious wounds, including collapsed lungs and a punctured bowel, requiring a five hour surgery at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine in East Lansing. However, Pearl later succumbed to her injuries and passed away.
Spagnuolo says despite the fact that her dog was mauled and the Mastiff broke the skin on her hand trying to defend Pearl, authorities have not been cooperative in dealing with the situation.
“The Fowlerville Police and Livingston County Animal Control also refused to confiscate the dogs,” she said. “They can only give a ticket for dog at large. I was also bitten by the dog and still do not know the rabies status of the dog. These dogs have had several complaints and nothing has been done.”
However, since putting the petition online, Spagnuolo says that Animal Control was able to get the Mastiff’s owners to voluntarily surrender the dog to be euthanized. Otherwise, she says it could take months for the dogs to be taken.
She is still asking the public to sign the change.org petition “to get justice for Pearl and make sure this never happens again. Laws against aggressive animals need to be enforced.”
In this case, she says that under the current policy Animal Control is off duty on the weekend and police are not able to seize animals after an attack.
As of Tuesday night, 66 people had signed the petition.
A request for comment was made to Livingston County Animal Control, but has yet to be returned.
