Woman Wins Respite for Pet Pit Bull Facing Death

The San Clemente owner of a pit bullterrier scheduled to be destroyed this morning for a fatal attack on another dog won a stay of execution Friday.

Superior Court Judge Julian Cimbaluk accepted a check for $1,000 instead of the $100,000 bond the city wanted by 5 p.m. Friday to save the dog, which San Clemente officials have declared vicious and a public nuisance--and which the owner admitted has been used in deadly dogfighting competitions.

Kyeli Beckmann presented the check one hour before the 5 p.m. deadline for saving the dog, named Ugly.

The judge ruled that Beckmann must now post a $10,000 bond by 5 p.m. Wednesday to keep Ugly alive.

The $1,000 check was a good-faith measure in lieu of the $10,000 bond. The city wanted the bond to ensure monetary compensation if there is another attack by the dog, according to Jeffrey A. Goldfarb, assistant city attorney. The dog is being held at the Orange County Animal Shelter.

The judge will not decide the terms of the animal’s release until a hearing on Aug. 4, Goldfarb said.

Attacked, Killed Old Dog

On Monday, the 3-year-old pit bull scaled two six-foot fences at the San Clemente Animal Shelter to attack and kill an old English sheep dog, shelter officials said. The pit bull and Skinny, a mixed Australian shepherd also owned by Beckmann, had been put away the day before, after being found chained to the bed of her illegally parked pickup truck on Granada Drive, San Clemente Fire Marshal Gene Begnell said Thursday.

Pit bulls have been the focus of controversy since recent attacks in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Last month a Los Angeles animal control officer was attacked while investigating an incident in which two people were bitten. In Huntington Beach, officials declared a pit bull vicious even before it had bitten anyone.

Both sides, however, were satisfied by the court ruling on Ugly’s immediate future.

Beckmann and her attorney, Wendy J. Park, said they were just happy Ugly was alive.

“Hey, the dog is not going to die tonight,” Park said.

Goldfarb said he had expected Beckmann to win a reprieve but did not think she would have to pay anything immediately.

Animal Control officials had told Beckmann Tuesday that she could save her dog if she:

- Put up a $100,000 bond or produced $100,000 in liability insurance.

- Proved that she has an enclosure strong enough to contain the animal.

- Arranged a permanent identification, such as a tattoo or ear tag, to be placed on the dog.

- Paid the $15 impounding fee, $5 for each day the dog has been impounded and a citation fee.

Goldfarb said the $10,000 bond required by Wednesday would be only an interim measure. Beckmann will not get Ugly back until she meets the conditions set by the city or conditions to be determined at the Aug. 4 hearing. Goldfarb is still seeking a $100,000 bond as a “reasonable fee” to cover the city’s liability if Ugly is released and attacks again.

But Beckmann said she could only “sort of” afford to buy Ugly’s freedom, even at Friday’s reduced price. She vowed somehow to meet the costs “out of love” for her dog.

Beckmann is unemployed after leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant last month. She has sold her house and had been preparing to move to New Mexico when Ugly’s problems began.

She said because she has no home she has no homeowner’s insurance to cover incidents caused by the dog. She said she has been sleeping at friends’ houses or camping at parks for the last month.

So far, Beckmann said, her efforts to save Ugly have cost her $118 to file for the court order postponing Ugly’s execution, $30 to get Skinny out of the animal shelter, about $100 in phone bills and $280 in attorney’s fees. She added that her attorney’s fees could get “fairly astronomical” and she may yet have to post the $100,000 bond sought by San Clemente.

To save Ugly, Beckmann said, she would sell her 1959 Chevrolet for perhaps $1,200; her 1936 Harley Davidson motorcycle for about $7,000, and her pickup truck, which may generate another $800. She also said she is seeking help from animal-rights groups and a pit bull association in Texas.

“If all it gets me is my dog back, that’s what I’ll have to settle for,” she said. But Beckmann also threatened to sue San Clemente to get more.

Beckmann said employees at the San Clemente shelter were negligent in the way they handled Ugly. The attack on the sheep dog occurred when Ugly was taken out of his enclosed kennel and placed in an exercise pen while the kennel was being cleaned.

Beckmann said she had warned Marc Lemieux, San Clemente Animal Services officer, that a previous owner had used the pit bull in fight competitions.

Although she insists Ugly is not vicious and has never attacked anything since she got him last March, she admitted he is “definitely potentially dangerous, but all pit bulls are.”

Because of that potential, she said, animal shelter employees should have been more cautious.

Lemieux said Friday that Beckmann may have told him about the dog’s background, but “it didn’t register.”

“If I had thought he was so aggressive and there was even the possibility that he may have vaulted those fences, I wouldn’t have let him be taken out his kennel,” Lemieux said.

“I wouldn’t have even let a kennel attendant touch him. Only I would--and only at the end of a pole.”

At the court hearing Friday, Lemieux insisted that he “could not reasonably have foreseen an incident like (the sheep dog attack).”

Beckmann has not seen her dog since he was taken away Sunday.

“He would never understand if I went to visit him and left him there,” she said. “It’d be awful hard to explain that to him.”