Council deems dog dangerous

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, July 21, 2008

A Fergus Falls dog owner says the high cost of pet insurance will force him to put down his animal, a cocker spaniel named Patch that bit both a postal carrier and a police officer in late June.

Members of the Fergus Falls city council declared Patch a dangerous dog following testimony from owner Kristian Kristiansen during a public hearing Monday. Council members also heard from Tom Thomas, a postman who said he was delivering mail along South Mabelle Avenue June 23 when Kristiansen’s dog ran across a neighboring yard, biting him on the upper calf and leaving a puncture wound that remains sensitive to this day. Officer Nathan Lien, who was bitten by the dog while investigating the incident later in the day, also spoke.

At Monday’s hearing, Kristiansen had the opportunity to defend his animal and tell his side of the story.

“That dog is not a dangerous dog,” he said, explaining he’d purchased the dog as a guard dog for Sandra Denbrook, the homeowner at 1130 South Mabelle where Kristiansen was present when Patch ran through an open door and bit the officer. Patch gets excited when he gets aggravated, Kristiansen said, but he’s more a barker than a biter.

According to Kristiansen, Patch’s bite to Thomas wasn’t as bad as the postman claims. Kristiansen said he asked Thomas about his condition following the bite and offered to get first aid materials, but was told “No, no, it’s just a little nip.”

Kristiansen also claimed he’s been the victim of harassment by Fergus Falls police on multiple occasions, and said Patch bit Lien because the officer stomped up the front steps of Denbrooks’s residence, pounded on the door and shouted inside. Kristiansen likened the delivery of a Notice of Dangerous Dog or Dangerous Animal and the seizure of Patch several days later to “a Gestapo raid,” involving at least nine police officers.

“Does that look like overkill?” Kristiansen asked the council. “It does to me.”

Yet council members found Patch dangerous on the basis that the dog had 1) caused bodily injury or disfigurement to any person on public or private property, and 2) bit one or more persons on two or more occasions. The council did not move to have the animal destroyed, but agreed that in order to have Patch released from the Otter Tail County Humane Society, Kristiansen must provide an enclosure for the animal, use a muzzle and leash on the animal when outside the enclosure, post warning signs on his property, and purchase a minimum of $300,000 liability insurance.

The last measure, Kristiansen said, he simply could not comply with.

“I can’t afford what you guys are asking of me,” he said, explaining he is on Social Security and will take the dog to be put down outside the city. “I’ll take him up to Park Rapids and bury him there.”

Before that happens, Kristiansen said he would like to keep the dog alive long enough so that the judge in a September criminal case regarding the bites can see the animal for himself. Whether the judge will extend Patch’s stay at the humane society until that time remains undetermined.