15 Finds Out: Man blames Allen County for dog attacks

YODER, Ind. (WANE)--A Yoder man blames Allen County for Tuesday’s dog attacks.  He said the county was well aware of the dog's dangerous behavior months ago, but couldn’t do anything legally because it has no dangerous dog ordinances.  Now he’s calling for new legislation before a similar situation happens.

On Tuesday, a Mastiff/Pit Bull mix named Rello ran loose in Fort Wayne.   It killed a cat, attacked a woman's dog, and injured the woman.  Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control said that it will be humanely put down.

Matt Wolfe said he was shocked when he saw NewsChannel 15’s coverage of Rello.  He raises chickens and turkeys in rural Allen County, and said the Mastiff/Pit Bull mix had been attacking pets and chasing people in Yoder for months.  Wolfe said he even had to shoot its mate when it charged at him.

In October, the dog attacked his chicken coops.

“I had I believe three turkeys that were killed at that time and one that I had to put down because the injuries weren't healing,” Wolfe said.  "I had several chickens that were killed.  These are the chickens that were killed that lay eggs for us that we use to supplement the feed for our family.”

Allen County police got involved, but Rello was eventually transferred to live in Fort Wayne. 

“For there not to be a communication between Allen County and Fort Wayne saying wait a minute, this dog has been deemed dangerous, it should not be allowed to be moved into a more populated area, it should not be a place where people don't know the history of the dog, I think that's neglectful,” Wolfe said. 

Fort Wayne has a dangerous dog ordinance, but Allen County does not, which is why there were hardly any consequences to Rello's aggression in Yoder.

“There's nothing as far as legal ramifications that we can utilize as a law enforcement agency that would prevent that from happening,” said Jeremy Tinkel, public information officer with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department.  “If Allen County did adopt the dangerous pet ordinance, it would definitely be a different situation.”

15 Finds Out confronted Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters on why there's no dangerous dog law, and discovered the change Wolfe is calling for, may be discussed after our questions.

“It just doesn't happen very often.  These incidents are few and far between,” Peters said.  “So we've not really considered things like unsafe dog ordinances in the past.  But I think it may rise to a level this time where I'm more than happy to sit down with the city of Fort Wayne's Animal Care and Control and see if they have any recommendations for how we might pursue something or how we might deal with these types of situations in the future.”

Sgt. Randy Thornton, enforcement division supervisor at Animal Care and Control, said he would recommend Allen County adopt a dangerous dog ordinance for the safety of folks living in the unincorporated areas.