🚀 go-pugleaf

(...Besides being full of neanderthal rednecks that is)

Okay, the "authorities" in Spotsylvania were notified REPEATEDLY that
this stupid bitch's dogs were a deadly threat, and they did NOTHING.

Now they're all sanctimonious about it.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4428-2005Apr20.html

Va. Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Dog Mauling

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 21, 2005; 11:25 AM

A Virginia woman pleaded not guilty today to a charge of involuntary
manslaughter in a dog-mauling attack that killed her 82-year-old
neighbor last month.

Deanna Large, 36, appearing in a packed courtroom in Spotsylvania
County, also pleaded not guilty to charges that she let her three pit
bulls run wild in her rural neighborhood in Partlow, in the southern
part of the county near Lake Anna. 

A jury trial was set for August.

Among those jammed into the courtroom were about a dozen relatives of
Dorothy Sullivan, who was mauled to death by three pit bulls while
walking her dog on her property March 8. Her dog, a Shih Tzu named
Buttons, was also killed in the attack.

Large was charged after telling investigators last month that she
owned the three untagged dogs that carried out the attack. Two of the
pit bulls were shot by animal control authorities after the mauling,
and the third was captured and euthanized. Neighbors had complained
repeatedly before Sullivan was killed that Large's pit bulls were
running loose and attacking their pets.

A Richmond attorney who is serving as a spokesman for Sullivan's
daughters said the family was encouraged that Commonwealth's Attorney
William Neely had decided to pursue a manslaughter charge in the case,
a step that is believed to be unprecedented in Virginia.

The attorney, Ed McNelis, said the family has not made any decision on
whether to file a civil suit against Large.

Large declined to comment as she left the Spotsylvania County Circuit
Courthouse escorted by two men. She shoved and cursed several jostling
photographers and television cameramen as she departed.

Before the mauling last month, Sullivan had called county officials at
least twice about feeling threatened by Large's dogs, McNelis said.

A week before the attack, another neighbor had called animal control
officers to complain that three pit bulls had mauled to death her
8-year-old German shepherd as she watched helplessly from her back
door.

Sullivan's death has focused attention in Virginia on what some
residents say are inadequate procedures for declaring a dog dangerous
and insufficient penalties for letting vicious dogs run loose. Under
state law, animal control officers can ask to have a dog declared
dangerous in a court proceeding only after it has "bitten or inflicted
injury."

Nationally, the manslaughter charge against Large is not without
precedent. In 2002, a San Francisco lawyer whose dog killed her
neighbor was sentenced to four years in prison for involuntary
manslaughter.

If convicted, Large could face up to 10 years in prison, authorities
said.