Woman headed to court to try to save her 2 dogs city deemed ‘dangerous’

By J.D. Miles

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    DALLAS (KTVT) — A court battle and a planned protest are in the works over a City of Dallas decision to euthanize two dogs next week.

The owner of the dogs, Lindsay Stafford, said it’s all because of an administrative oversight and that the city is killing animals that haven’t attacked anyone.

She said her pit bull mixes, Suge White and Boopsie, are all bark and no bite.

“I allow my 1-year-old grandchild around them. I completely trust these dogs,” she said.

Back in June 2021, Stafford’s next door neighbor told animal control in a complaint that he was “scared to death” and subjected to “viscous growling” when the dogs chewed through his backyard fence.

“They were in the yard for maybe two seconds before we can get them out. Before we can get them out the neighbor had a gun pointed at our dogs,” she said.

The incident was followed by notices to appear in court for a judge to determine if the animals could be considered dangerous.

But Stafford said the mailed notices about the court dates were mistakenly left unopened because they were addressed to her daughter who moved away.

“My daughter left early July to go live with her father in California,” said Stafford.

The lack of response to the court appearances led to a ruling against them and the dogs were declared dangerous.

In January, Stafford said she was breaking up a fight between the dogs over food and suffered a cut to her hand.

“They fought over their food bowl and I got in the middle of it and I did have to get stitches,” she said.

Because the dogs had already been declared dangerous, that owner’s pet injury led to them being seized by animal control where they now face euthanization on Tuesday, March 15 unless Stafford wins a court hearing scheduled for the day before.

“It’s been kind of emotional roller coaster just going home and not seeing them there and knowing that they are just caged up for no good reason,” she said.

In a statement to CBS 11 News, Dallas Animal Services said, “The dogs were deemed Dangerous on September 21, 2021. On January 24, 2022, the court found the dogs’ owner failed to comply with the legal requirements for Dangerous Dogs under the Texas Health & Safety Code and ordered the dogs be remanded to DAS.”

Stafford owner goes to court on Monday to plead for the dogs to be spared.

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