Loose, aggressive pets a dogged issue
Staff writer
Loose dogs are a difficult issue to discuss. But like wind farms and DUIs, the issue is persistent, an itch that won’t go away.
Two weeks ago, five separate incidents involving loose dogs were reported by police in Marion and Hillsboro.
Two more loose dogs were reported in Hillsboro last week, with one being described as “aggressive.”
Marion has had 47 dog-related calls, 15 loose dog pickups, and 2 dog bites so far this year, interim police chief Zach Hudlin said.
Stray dogs also are commonplace in Peabody, which until this week had no police force.
Multiple Peabody residents have expressed fear and discontent with the animals.
“Why is this constantly happening?” one wrote in May. “Makes me worried to let my grandson outside in my yard.”
Loose dogs come and go in waves, Hudlin said.
“Some weeks it seems like you’re constantly on dog calls, and then you’ll go a couple of months without seeing any,” he said.
Marion resident Lacy Westmoland, for one, has had enough.
“I have dogs jumping over fences, sitting on my porch,” Westmoland said. “I have aggressive dogs trying to attack my dog. I’ve lived in this trailer for 20 years. I’ve never had so many issues.”
Westmoland recently built a four-foot-tall wire fence around the front yard of her trailer to prevent loose dogs from entering.
She now wants to build a taller one, arguing that the fence has offered little protection for her and her shih tzu, Charlie.
However, she has been prevented from doing so by city zoning rules, which allow a maximum height of four feet on front-yard fences.
“How is a four foot fence going to stop a dog?” she said. “People aren’t taking responsibility for their animals.”
Westmoland has history with dogs. She was seriously injured in March 2024 after being attacked by a pit bull in Wichita.
“There were two dogs involved,” she said. “One went after my little dog. I got my dog out of its mouth. Then the other dog launched at me, knocking me down to the concrete, repeatedly biting my head and face.”
Westmoland suffered two wounds to the head and had emergency surgery, receiving 28 stitches on her face and neck and 40 staples in her head, she said.
She has become so worried about dogs on her property that she now carries a Taser and a firearm while doing yard work.
She admits she is more worried than most about angry dogs.
Police can issue citations to owners of loose dogs, but when they do so is up to their discretion.
More often, a loose dog whose owner can’t immediately be found is taken to a veterinary clinic.
“Generally, if it’s a one or two-time issue, we don’t issue a citation,” Hudlin said. “People are generally fairly embarrassed when that happens. They have to go to the vet, pay the bill.”
If the same dog repeatedly poses a problem in Marion, a citation is issued, and the dog is tagged, taken to Animal Health Center, and receives shots if needed.
The owner must pay a $10 to $15 registration fee at Animal Health Center and $20 for every day the dog is kept there.
Hillsboro police similarly tend to forgive residents the first time a dog gets loose.
“If we wanted to be aggressive and wrote everybody a ticket every time their dog was out, you’d probably have less dogs out,” Hiebert said. “But by the same token, I think people deserve the opportunity to correct the problem if it didn’t hurt anybody.”
If the dog bites or shows aggression toward a human, its owner almost will always receive a citation, Hiebert said.
Hiebert pointed out the financial burden a citation could place on a family; court costs in Hillsboro are $145, and a ticket hovers around $60.
In Marion, court costs are $110 and a fine is $50.
Hiebert conceded that loose dogs had been a problem his entire career and that his staff was not well equipped to do animal control.
During one memorable instance, officers had to track down a tranquilizer rifle so they could knock out an aggressive dog.
“We don’t have the equipment to deal with vicious animals,” Hiebert said.
Westmoland thinks police used to write a proper amount of citations but have since become lax.
On a recent occasion, Westmoland claimed a neighbor’s dog approached her fence and attempted to attack her and her shih tzu.
“It could have easily knocked my fence down,” she said. “I had my Taser in my yard work bucket, but not my gun.”
Westmoland has a “no trespassing” order against the neighbor, Michael Smith, and his family.
She also claimed the Smith family previously allowed their dogs to urinate in her yard and made obscene gestures toward her security cameras.
“I have emailed three different local cops and talked to two on the phone,” she said. “Nothing has been done towards the neighbor — not even a slap on the hand for violating the no trespassing.”
Smith lives with his mother Misty. The family has two dogs, a boxer and a Chihuahua.
Both of them said Westmoland was exaggerating the situation, though Misty conceded that she had “flipped her off” before.
“We don’t ever go in this woman’s yard,” Misty said. “Ever since I moved in here, I have not talked to that woman. … Something’s wrong with her.”
Misty said both of the family’s dogs were service animals.
Hudlin said his department decided not to ticket Smith after reviewing Westmoland’s security footage.
“This dude’s riding his bike down the street,” he said. “He had the dog on a leash strapped to the handlebars of his bike. The dog darts off in one direction, and he wrecks his bike into her yard. She wanted to charge him with trespassing. We were like, ‘yeah, that doesn’t work.’”
Hudlin said Westmoland frequently complained about animals and that her “no trespassing” order had likely antagonized both parties.
“There’s no coming back from it,” he said.
Another neighbor, who requested anonymity because she “didn’t want to start a war,” also said Westmoland’s complaints might be exaggerated.
“She has an issue with everybody,” the woman said. “There aren’t a whole lot of loose dogs down here, not as many as there used to be.”
Hudlin and Hiebert both said they thought their respective city dog laws were adequate.
“Our city ordinances are already fairly comprehensive as far as dealing with animals,” Hudlin said. “I don’t know that more legislation is necessarily the issue.”
Westmoland, however, wants things to change.
“The citations, maybe they need to go up every time that the dog gets out,” she said. “Nobody’s perfect. I get that, but not constantly, and especially with an aggressive dog.”
She has made some progress on this front.
On Monday, Marion’s planning and zoning commission said it would recommend an exception permitting her to build a taller fence.
“I told her I would allow a four-foot fence with one foot of lattice on top,” city inspector James Masters said.
Masters said Westmoland didn’t realize she could build a solid screen fence across the front of her yard and was excited to hear she could make that change.