Dog complaints pour in to sheriff 's office

Five dog complaints were filed at the sheriff's office in four days, including four about aggressive dogs.

It began last Wednesday when a teenager was attacked by a pit bull as he walked along Ridge Road in Shell Bluff.

According to the report filed at the Burke County Sheriff's Office, the dog bit him on both legs and on his upper thigh.

Two days later, a Farmers Bridge Road man was bitten by a dog in his own yard. He was sitting inside his truck when the large dog came up and bit his hand.

Last week, a Martin Lane resident reported that her neighbor's dogs were turning over garbage and acting aggressively toward three young girls, and a Hephzibah woman told deputies that four strays, including an aggressive bulldog wouldn't leave her Quail Drive property.

Deputies also followed up on an animal cruelty complaint involving a couple who abandoned their chained puppy when they moved away from their Pecan Lane home. When officers originally found the dog in early September, it was in "poor health" and the chain was partially embedded in its neck. When officers left to seek help from a local animal rescue group, the puppy was removed by its owner.

Last Sunday, the puppy was relocated at a Clarks Place Road home with numerous stitches in its neck. A deputy knocked on the door with intentions of seizing the puppy, but left empty-handed when it ran into the road and was struck and killed by a car.

"I was trying to call Old Fella Rescue when I heard tires squealing," Cpl. Jamie Tanner said.

The dog's owner, Cynthia Tolbert, voluntarily went to the sheriff's office for questioning, but Cpl. Tanner said making a case will be difficult since the dog is no longer alive.