The owner of the dogs Cobb police say attacked two women and three other people last month in Marietta has been cited several times over the past year for violating county ordinances related to the animals.
Seven pit bulls escaped their Beverly Lane home April 10 and attacked a female neighbor outside her home and another woman in the dog owner’s home off Windy Hill Road. Police who came to the scene shot two of the dogs, killing one. Five people were injured in the attack and both women were taken to the hospital.
The owner, Leslie White, has been cited six times between February 2018 and March of this year for the dogs roaming the neighborhood, injuring a chicken and biting another animal, according to citations and incident reports obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Cobb County through an open records request.
However Cobb County Animal Services Division Director Shana Luke said the agency hasn’t had a report of the dogs biting people before the April 10 incident. Charges against the owner have not been filed in the case.
Alice Johnson, an 82-year-old great-grandmother and White's neighbor, was the most seriously injured that day. She suffered bites to her neck, arms and head in the dog attack.
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Her son, Raymond Patton, told the AJC Friday that his mother survived the April attack only “by the grace of God,” as he was sure he was pulling her corpse into the house following the attack. After spending several days in the hospital, Patton said his mother is improving, but is still afraid to leave her home.
“It’s done more mental damage to her than anything,” he said. “No one should have to be in fear in the own yard.”
Patton said he called Cobb police three times between February and March 2018 to report issues with the dogs. According to the February 2018 report, Patton said one of the animals got into his mother’s backyard and injured a chicken. Patton in March 2018 called police on two occasions to report the dogs from next door got loose and chased him.
In June 2018, White told police she was walking one of her pit bulls when it slipped out of its collar and attacked a dog tethered in a yard. White was cited for violating the county’s animal control ordinance and notified of a court date. Citation records show she will have to appear in Cobb County Magistrate Court at 9 a.m. May 9 to answer to a March 20 incident in which two of her dogs were found running around other people’s yards.
READ | Cobb great-grandmother mauled by dogs says she's afraid to go outside
When reached by phone Friday, White told the AJC that she was “sorry” that her dogs got out and attacked her neighbors.
“I don’t know what else to say about it,” she said. “I’m glad everybody is OK. I just regret the dogs getting out.”
White said the county took the dogs away from her.
The fate of the animals will be decided by a Cobb judge once the case is heard in court, Cobb police spokesman Officer Neil Penirelli said. He also said the case has been sent to the Cobb County Solicitor General’s Office for review.
Patton said he is frustrated with the situation because everyone on the street “has to live in fear” of coming out of their homes. He said he hopes the highly-publicized incident will lead to changes that will allow his mother’s life to return to a sense of normalcy.
“When it’s your mother, it’s hard to shrug it off,” he said.
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