Two women who say their dogs were killed this year when attacked by larger canines appealed to the Naperville City Council for stricter regulations and a dangerous dog registry to stop incidents like theirs from happening again.
Elizabeth Carroll told the council Tuesday she was with her dog Lucy, a 5-year-old Maltese-poodle mix Feb. 28 when they were charged by one of three dogs being walked by a woman.
“I held our Lucy, who’s really small, up above my head to protect her, and then I was bitten by one of the dogs,” Carroll said.
A second dog broke away, bit her and knocked her over before the two dogs went after Lucy.
A neighbor helped pull the attacking dogs off.
“I ran home, got in the car and drove Lucy to the vet. Sadly, she died about 10 minutes after we arrived from her injuries: a punctured lung and crushed rib cage,” Carroll said.
Jill Lejsek said she was walking her three dogs March 19 when two unleashed dogs approached and one of them attacked her chihuahua.
“I was literally in hand-to-hand combat with this dog. I jumped on it; I was hitting it; I was kicking it. It took my 9-pound dog and shook the living daylights out of it,” Lejsek said. “It was the most traumatizing event I’ve been in a long time.”
This was the second time Lejsek watched a pet die in an attack. “Twelve years ago, the same thing happened. Someone had these dogs that were loose. Someone did not have good control and killed another dog I had,” she said.
Carroll and Lejsek called on the council to raise penalties and create a registry to alert the community about dogs deemed dangerous by Naperville Animal Control.
Lejsek said stiffer fines should be imposed. “These people are only going to be fined probably $300, and they killed my dog. I have over $3,200 in vet bills,” she said.
In requesting a copy of the police report on her case and others involving the same owner, Carroll said she discovered the dog that attacked her was involved in two other bite attacks.
A directory of dangerous and vicious dogs should be available, she said, so the public can know where they live and what they look like so they can be avoided.
Councilwoman Patty Gustin agreed, saying if it’s information the city can share with the public, “I think that’s important.”
Police Chief Jason Arres said animal control has designated two to three dogs as dangerous annually over the last four years, and the city typically receives between 25 to 30 reports of dog-on-dog attacks every year.
City Attorney Michael DiSanto said a single bite is sufficient if the facts and circumstances warrant for a dog to be labeled as “dangerous” under the city’s home rule authority.
“If a dog has been vicious or attacked a person or another animal, we can enter a dangerous dog designation based on an attack on another animal, and we do that frequently,” DiSanto said.
Staff can look for best practices of other communities and bring back recommendations or options for council consideration, he said.
Citations by the city are part of court documents, DiSanto said, but a person would need to know the owner’s name to conduct a search. “For us to be able to publish those, I think we would have to do a little research,” he said.
Mayor Steve Chirico said city staff will study the issue to determine if changes are warranted.
“We may find out that nothing changes in terms of our ordinances. But I think the discussion in and of itself was worth it,” Chirico said.
He added raising awareness and helping people understand they need to be more attentive to animals is important.
Councilman Benjamin White raised concerns about tracking dogs that have been deemed dangerous in other communities but move into Naperville.
“It makes me think that maybe there’s something that may need to go above and beyond just a city ordinance, or maybe needs to be something that’s done at the state or the county level,” White said.
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