Posted on 10/12/2006 7:49:44 AM PDT by laotzu
Donna and Sarah are miniature poodles that every month are carefully groomed and bedecked in colorful bows and kerchiefs. Their owners, Ben and Rosie Ramirez, consider the dogs their children.
Thursday, Animal Care Services held an hourlong, recorded hearing to determine whether the poodles are dangerous and should be seized and possibly euthanized.
The investigation was sparked when a neighbor, Ronald Hope, told authorities the poodles attacked him and his two pit bulls, Duke and Coco, as they walked past the Ramirezes' Northwest Side residence in July.
Hope said he was terrified during the incident and claimed in an affidavit that the poodles injured his pit bulls and bit his foot.
"I had a leather shoe on, luckily," he recalled Thursday.
Ben Ramirez, who witnessed the incident, insists the attack never happened, that the poodles merely ran toward the pit bulls to "sniff them out" and then retreated when he called them back.
Asked to bring the poodles to the hearing Thursday and release them to the city department for five days so they could be examined, he and his wife refused.
Instead, they brought their lawyers.
"I don't want to bring my poodles to this kind of environment, to those cages, those wild animals," Rosie Ramirez told a panel of three veterinarians, one employed by the city, who are to determine whether the poodles are dangerous.
This "does not make sense," she added. "How can a poodle attack a pit bull?"
According to the Ramirezes' lawyers, Hope's allegations sprang from a desire for retaliation.
In 2005, the city seized Tyson, another pit bull owned by Hope, after Tyson tangled with Hondo, a Rottweiler owned by the Ramirezes, said Lisa Norwood, spokeswoman for Animal Care Services.
Hope said Ben Ramirez enticed Tyson to his property with food and the Rottweiler then attacked the pit bull. Ramirez said Tyson attacked Donna and Sarah and that Hondo came to the poodles' rescue, only to be attacked by Tyson.
The city returned the Rottweiler to Ramirez after two weeks. Tyson remains in the city's care. Like all dogs deemed dangerous, the pit bull will be euthanized unless its owner agrees to a number of requirements.
Among other preconditions, Hope must obtain public liability insurance and allow Tyson, whom he intended to breed, to be neutered before the city will return the dog to him.
Hope, who said he couldn't afford to submit to all the requirements, said Thursday that he expects the pit bull will be euthanized.
David Narvaez, an officer with Animal Care Services, said he initially deemed Hope's allegations against the poodles frivolous in light of their gentle nature and the past conflict between Hope and Ramirez.
"When I made my investigation, to me it seemed retaliation," Narvaez said, "that the (poodles) were not dangerous."
Hope denied that retaliation was his motive and called the poodles "a danger to the community."
The tangled history behind Hope's allegations has not translated into a grain of salt for the city.
"I understand this case has a lot of problems with it, but we're going to seriously look at it and consider all aspects," said Roque Gonzales, the city-employed veterinarian.
Norwood said the city has no choice.
"If an injury to a human or an animal is alleged, it's our legal responsibility to investigate that allegation," she said.
As for the Ramirez family's refusal to deliver Donna and Sarah to city officials, Gonzales said at the hearing that it would "behoove" them to reconsider. Otherwise, they would have to make their determination based on "incomplete evidence," Norwood said.
"Certainly someone who does not cooperate with our panel shows me the potential that he has something to hide," Gonzales said at the hearing.
As of Thursday, Ben and Rosie Ramirez firmly intended to keep the poodles at home — where they said that, nightly, Donna and Sarah snuggle up with their owners in bed.
I had a Miniature Poodle for 19 yrs, and you couldn't own a nicer or more intelligent dog.
LOL! I thought this was going to be about liberal and conservative approaches to defending our country.
I had a black lab a number of years ago. She was one of the sweetest and most gentle dogs I have ever seen. I was taking her for a walk one night and this unleashed little white poodle came out to defend it's territory. My lab, being the goofball she was, went to go check it out. The little thing lunged at my lab bit and bit her on the face. In an instant she had that poodle's head in her mouth and with two shakes of her head the poodle went limp. It happened so quickly I could not do anything to stop it. The dog's owner went ballistic, to be expected. We wound up having to sort it out with a police officer. In the end it was considered self defense on the part of my lab since there was no fence around her house and the dog was unleashed. Still I felt terrible that my dog had killed her dog.
That is sad. Most people think dogs like poodles are incapable of being vicious. They're dogs, albeit small ones, and they can be just as bad as any. When I was younger, a Pomeranian attacked me and took my thumbnail clean off, along with some flesh. I know, funny, but it hurt a lot and took months for the nail to grow back. Little dogs should be leashed and controlled just like big ones, no matter what color kerchief they wear.
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