Pit bull’s euthanizing comes as family shock

Montgomery County official: ‘For us, it’s a public safety issue.’

Robin Pack was in the process of adopting 3-year-old Stormy, who killed a dachshund in May, but wasn’t told county put dog down.

Two are dogs are now dead in relation to an incident in May that left one killed and the other euthanized.

Stormy, a 3-year-old pit bull that attacked and killed a dachshund in May, was euthanized about a week ago, her foster mother, Robin Pack, said.

The dog’s foster family learned of her euthanization in Kettering Municipal Court on Wednesday, where prosecutors dropped citations against Pack for “dog at large” and “no dog registration.”

Prosecutors also told Pack that her appeal of Stormy’s “dangerous dog” designation was now moot because they had euthanized the dog.

“They told me that they euthanized her just last week or whatever, but nobody bothered to tell us, and I didn’t think that was fair,” Pack said after the hearing.

Pack was in the process of adopting the dog, but it was owned by the Cincinnati SPCA shelter at the time, which signed it over to Montgomery County to be euthanized.

Montgomery Co u nty spokeswoman Cathy Petersen said the dog also bit at least one person in the attack, and the county never releases animals that could be dangerous.

“For us, it’s a public safety issue,” Petersen said.

Petersen confirmed that Stormy had been euthanized on June 5.

The dog is the second to be killed in the case. On the evening of May 14, Stormy attacked and killed a nonleashed dachshund in its owner’s backyard on Windsor Drive in Washington Township.

At the time, Pack’s 16-year- old daughter was walking Stormy with a leash in an area not uncommon for dogs to be walking. Cooper, the 4-year-old rescued dachshund, had been let out by his owner to relieve himself, and approached the pit bull.

When the dachshund got close to the pit bull, the dog latched onto its neck and shook the dachshund until it went limp. Both Pack’s daughter and the dachshund’s owner tried to separate the two, but had little success.

Cooper was taken to an animal hospital, where he died of his injuries. His owners declined to comment after Wednesday’s hearing. Stormy was quickly taken into cus- tody by authorities.

“I d idn’t th i nk it was right that they took her and wouldn’t give her back,” Pack said.

“Nobody returned calls. I didn’t think it was fair that she was euthanized when the incident happened while she was on the leash and the other dog wasn’t.”

Before the court hearing on Wednesday, an animal welfare organization held a rally outside of the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center in an effort to save Stormy’s life and vindicate Pack, unaware that the dog had been euthanized.

Dog attacks are not uncommon in and around Dayton. According to Dayton and Montgomery Public Health, there were 875 dog bites of people here in 2017.

That includes the mauling of 60-year-old Maurice Brown, who was killed by a pit bull that was later shot and killed by police.