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September 4, 2005
This
Colleyville family would do everyone a favor if they stopped
taking in strays, man and beast alike,..the results is one
in jail, a severely injured pet and the death to
others because of their lack of responsibility to their
neighbors and animals alike.
Judge James R. Ames presided over another Dangerous Dog trial
in Colleyville's Municipal Court on Wednesday, August 31,
2005.
Mark and Melinda Stokes were accused of allowing two
adopted canines to run loose and terrorize the Rustic
Oaks neighborhood, culminating in an unprovoked attack
on
another neighbor's dog.
Thirteen year old Kelsey Peta testified she had been walking
her Beagle, appropriately named Snoopy, on the street of
her tree-lined neighborhood on the hot afternoon of August 24,
2005. She noticed as she walked past the side of
the home at 5317 Rustic Trail, the neighbor's two
adolescent children playing on a dirt mound with another
little girl in the yard. Suddenly two loose dogs raised
their heads up from behind the mound.
The dogs, a female Pit Bull and female Shepherd-Chow mix,
bolted towards the
7th grader but zeroed in their attack exclusively on Snoopy.
Kelsey dropped the leash, but there wasn't time for the
little Beagle to escape, even if it had occurred to him to
abandon his owner. The Pit Bull bit his front legs
while the Shepherd bit him on the back above his tail,
while Snoopy tried to defend himself.
Kelsey said the neighbor children tried to no avail to call
the dogs, named Sasha and Sweetie, back to the yard.
The neighbor's older son, Nathan and the daughter,
Hannah, then physically intervened to try to separate
the dogs during the fight. According to the childrens'
mother, Malinda Stokes, they had been bitten by Snoopy.
City Prosecutor Michael Kallas asked Kelsey if Snoopy had ever
bitten anyone-or these children-before this incident.
The answer was no. Deborah Peta, Kelsey's mother, testified
that on August 14, 2005, she herself had taken her visiting
sister's Shitzu for a walk on Rustic Trail when the black
Shepherd came running at great speed towards her, barking
and snarling. Mrs. Peta scooped up the small dog in her
arms and an older child of the Stokes family called the
Shepherd, "Sweetie", back home.
Kallas asked Mrs. Peta if the dog had been in an aggressive
stance, and she answered, "Yes, and I was walking away
from the Stokes house."
Julie Hughes, who lives next door to the Stokes, filed a
citizen's Complaint against Mark and Melinda Stokes for an
incident with the two dogs she incurred on August 5, 2005, as
reported in Local News Only: 8/05/05 Report
of 2 dogs running at large at 5313 Rustic Trail, in the
Rustic Oaks subdivision. The female victim, 51, told
Officer Greg Prewitt that while she was walking past the
residence where the dogs live, both
dogs bolted into the street, straight toward her in a very
aggressive manner.
That complaint was combined with this Dangerous Dog
Hearing. Mrs. Hughes
testified that the Stokes consistently let the dogs,
which they had only acquired last February, run loose
unsupervised and the dogs were becoming more and more
aggressive and territorial of the entire neighborhood.
On August 5, about 6:30 PM, she was walking to her home by
walking on the
opposite side of the street, towards the David Lee
residence on Elm. The Stokes children, Hannah, Daniel, and
Jonah Stokes were playing in their front yard with the
dogs, when Sasha, the Pit Bull, and Sweetie, the
Shepherd, charged her, barking and snarling. "I
said a prayer, 'God help me', and in a commanding voice
I confronted the dogs, pointing away and telling them to
'Go home', while I tried to step behind a brick mailbox.
One of the dogs did go home, but the other, the
Shepherd, did not. The children in the Stokes driveway
did not budge to come help me. There were no
adults to come to my aid. It was a terrifying
feeling. I took 4 steps back, and told the children I
was going to call the Police."
After a few seconds, the Shepherd went home, and Julie Hughes
made it back
into her house and called the Police non-emergency number.
Officer Brian
Thorne was dispatched, but the dogs had already been put up.
Hughes thought it
over and concluded she would file the Complaint, "We'll
go through the system
and let the Court decide."
Melinda Stokes asked Ms. Hughes, "Did you ever attempt to
talk to us?"
Hughes answered, "No. We tried to talk to you about
other matters before, like the Sex Offender in your home-if
you had kept the dogs on a leash or in a fenced area you
would not be here today."
Animal Control Officer Michelle Benton told the court that the
Stokes had adopted the dogs, who are 1 year olds, from
the Keller Animal Shelter in February, 2005, and there had
been about 8 complaints about the dogs being loose in
that time. She said that the incidents happened most
frequently on the weekends or after 4:30 PM when her
office is closed. It was her belief that without a fence
to contain the dogs, they gradually came to believe that the
entire neighborhood was their "territory" to
protect, as they had no defining perimeters.
ACO Benton testified that the Stokes had put up a fence only
two days before; after she had seized Sasha and Sweetie on the
25th of August and taken them to the Bedford Animal Facility.
Benton had inspected the fence the morning of the
Hearing, and felt like it would safely contain the dogs.
Officer Benton stated that she had contacted the veterinarian
who treated Snoopy after the attack. She showed
Judge Ames and Melinda Stokes the pictures and explained
details about the swelling in one front leg and the drainage
tube in one of the bites in his rear end. The 4 year old
Beagle is in good spirits and expected to fully recover, she
concluded.
Judge Ames made his ruling, declaring the two canines were
proved vicious.
"We have ample evidence these dogs attacked another dog
and have approached
other people in a manner that probably constitutes an attack.
I have a duty under our Laws to protect citizens."
"I will not ban the dogs from the City or order them
euthanized. They must be contained in a fenced area.
If they are outside for any reason, they must not only be
leashed, but muzzled, and enclosed at all times otherwise.
If the dogs get out by themselves, you have breached the order
and I reserve the right to have them removed from the City.
Anywhere they go, you or their caretaker is required to
notify the Animal Control Authorities and have Liability
Insurance, which is very high."
"I do this to protect you too."
"You are ordered to pay the impound fees of $120 if the
dogs are picked up from the shelter today, and pay the
Veterinarian bill of $373. I will give you time to
reimburse those; you must pay the Vet bill to the Peta's by
January 13, 2006, and the Impound fee to the City of
Colleyville by November 25, 2005."
Local News Only learned that due to the costs involved with
Liability Insurance, which is set by the State of Texas to be
at least $100,000 per dog, the Stokes elected to have the
Bedford Animal Facility euthanize Sasha and Sweetie on
Wednesday.
May
2, 2005, LNO posted an article concerning a meeting in the
Rustic Oaks neighborhood because the same family and taken in
a human "stray" that also happened to be a sex
offender.
April 12, 2005, LNO posted an article concerning the sex
offender that fled from Colleyville Police in a high speed car
chase; the offender, Doug Bachstein was living with the same
Stokes family.
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