What to Know
- Police said three dogs that repeatedly escaped from their owner's yard bit at least a dozen people in Little Egg Harbor Township over the span of four months.
- The dogs were seized in December but were returned to the owner after he deceived a judge, police said.
- The dogs were captured again on Monday and the owner faces additional charges.
Police officers captured three dogs that they say terrorized an Ocean County, New Jersey, neighborhood, biting at least a dozen people over the span of a few months.
On Monday around 2:15 p.m., police responded to Lake Winnipesaukee Drive in Little Egg Harbor Township for a report of a dog bite. When they arrived they found a 69-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man suffering from multiple dog bites. They also spotted three dogs on the loose.
Over the next hour, the officers and residents tried to capture the dogs as they bit four other residents.
“None of the residents did anything to provoke those animals,” Little Egg Harbor Township Police Chief Richard Buzby said.
They were eventually able to capture the dogs and turned them over to animal control.
“I would sum up yesterday as an hour of terror,” Chief Buzby said.
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Police said the same dogs bit at least 12 people in Little Egg Harbor Township within the past four months.
“These dogs have been nothing but a menace to this block, to this neighborhood,” Michael Johannsen, a resident, told NBC10. “Big time.”
The dogs had repeatedly escaped from a yard at their owner’s home. The owner had been issued multiple summonses in connection to the prior incidents. He was charged in December and his dogs were seized but he was able to get them back after he deceived a judge, police said.
“He told the judge that two of three of the animals belonged to someone else in a different jurisdiction and his intent upon the release of those animals was to immediately return them and return them to their home in the other jurisdiction,” Chief Buzby said. “That did not happen.”
The owner now faces additional charges. No one answered the door when NBC10 went to his home on Tuesday. A man who later arrived said he was the owner’s brother and claimed the dogs were friendly.
“It’s a sad, sad case and I really hope that something finally happens to the owners of these dogs and to the dogs themselves, unfortunately,” Johannsen said.
The dogs are currently being kept at the Southern Ocean County Animal Shelter ahead of another hearing for the owner on Friday. Chief Buzby said he’ll do whatever he can to make sure the dogs never return to the neighborhood.
