LAFAYETTE — The criminal case against a 10-year-old miniature dachshund that bit a Lafayette veterinarian technician on the lips should be dismissed because the city’s vicious-animal ordinance is flawed and state law should prevail, a defense attorney argued Friday.
The prosecutor in the case countered that Lafayette’s law is clear, and Spork the dog should be held accountable.
Municipal Court Judge Roger Buchholz said he would rule next week on whether to drop the charge against the dog or allow the case to proceed. Violating Lafayette’s vicious-animal law can draw punishment up to a $500 fine on a first offense and a lifetime in a kennel or euthanization.
Defense attorney Jay Swearingen, who specializes in animal law, said he’s never heard of a Colorado case where an animal-care worker was bitten by an otherwise nonviolent dog and pressed charges — namely because state law prohibits those who work with animals in veterinarian offices from pressing charges in bite cases.
Prosecutor Ralph Josephsohn, however, said that the city’s 2006 law prohibits “vicious animals,” defined as those that attack or bite without being provoked, approach someone in a terrorizing way or have been trained to fight.
