A Fulton County man hopes to stop the dogs from harming others.
ATLANTA – Sergio Loera showed pictures of Hazel and Lilly as he rescued them from an animal shelter.
They were “fur sisters,” but Hazel was his brown-eyed girl. While on vacation, the dog sitter told Loera that one and a half year old Hazel had been killed.
“That’s when I started combing through the surveillance video and it took me a couple of times to go through it all,” Loera said.
The home surveillance video showed a group of four dogs making their way through the backyard fence. The video is too graphic to share.
“I could hear her howling and crying when she was viciously attacked,” he said.
Fulton County Animal Control and the Atlanta Police are working on this case but were unable to catch the dogs or contact the owner. Loera took it upon herself to track down the dogs.
He cried when he said he would find her.
“I probably shouldn’t be running around trying to find these dogs, but I can’t sit and just do nothing,” he said.
He said many Lakewood Heights neighbors are on high alert.
“A lot of people have shared that they need to carry bear spray, penknives and bats just for a dog walk,” he said.
“I’d rather be shot by a bullet than hit by a dog,” said Claudine Wilkins. “I’ve worked on dangerous dog problems for 30 years and wrote the Responsible Dog Owners Act in 2014.”
The lawyer and animal advocate is drafting another bill with the Georgian legislature that is supposed to offer more protection to the victims of dog attacks.
“What a sad thing to see in a video to see your beloved pet being torn apart by some dogs,” she said.
According to Wilkins, there are several key issues with the law in Georgia that affects victims of dog attacks and their families, including:
- This does not apply to all Georgians as some counties do not have dog regulations
- If there is no violation of the Dog Regulations, victims must show that the owner knew their dogs were harmful, and the victim must also show that they did not provoke the attack.
- The case law gives bad owners too much leeway if their dogs have previously harmed someone.
“I always say that if a pet is attacked in the neighborhood, it is just the precursor to human sacrifice on the street,” she said.
Animal advocates set up an online donation account to help the family pay legal fees to find justice for Hazel.
