LAFAYETTE — The criminal case against a 10-year-old miniature dachshund that bit a Lafayette veterinarian technician should be dismissed because the city’s vicious animal ordinance is flawed and state law should prevail, a defense attorney argued Friday.
Municipal Court Judge Roger Buchholz said he will rule next week on whether to drop the charge against the dog, Spork, or allow the case to proceed. Violating Lafayette’s vicious animal law can draw punishment up to 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 has been bit by an otherwise non-violent dog and pressed charges — namely because state law exempts it.
“We know dogs bark and bite,” he said during a hearing Friday. “The professionals who go into this business know there is some risk.”
In August, Spork’s owners took him to Lafayette’s Jasper Animal Hospital to have a bad tooth extracted. Owner Kelly Walker said she was holding the 17-pound dog in her arms while the technician attached a hospital band, then took out scissors to cut off the excess.
The dog bit the technician in the face when she reached out to take Spork from Walker. Walker said her dog was simply scared — so scared he defecated on her arm — and in pain, not vicious.
The technician, Allyson Stone, lost small pieces of her lips and was treated at Boulder Community Hospital and by a plastic surgeon.
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