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Puppy killed by neighbor’s dogs

Bill Lackey WHIO TV screen capture.

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 6:32 AM Tuesday, February 8, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — A Green Twp. man is facing misdemeanor charges after his dogs allegedly pulled a neighbor’s puppy out of her house and mauled it to death on Jan. 12.

Tonya Smithhisler said she was sitting in her front room eating that afternoon, and opened the front door when she heard a sound. “When I looked down, I just saw these two dogs looking up at me,” she said.

They were black Cane Corso breed dogs, according to court records. Smithhisler said she screamed and tried to close the screen door, but one of the dogs got its head in and snagged her 9-month-old pug named Brutus from the doorway.

The two dogs mauled Brutus on her porch and again in her yard, she said. Her husband grabbed a shotgun and tried to get the puppy’s body back, she said, but they ran away with it. The body was never found.

The Cane Corso belonged to Lloyd Kemp, 64, of 7702 Springfield Jamestown Road, according to municipal court records.

Clark County Deputy Dog Warden Charles Jones responded to Kemp’s home that afternoon, according to court records. Kemp told the officer his dogs Sheba and Fraiser had escaped that afternoon and may have attacked the neighbor’s dog, the report says.

“I believe he was very sorry for the incident involving his dogs,” Jones wrote.

Kemp was charged with failure to contain a vicious dog, a first degree misdemeanor carrying up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine. He was also required to purchase dog tags, which he reportedly did.

Court records show Kemp was found guilty of the same offense in 2001.

Smithhisler said the incident still has her shook up. “We’re still kind of leery about opening the door and going outside,” she said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374.

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