Outlaw Dog Told to Stay Out of Dodge

Saint the dog is still on the lam.

The Doberman pinscher, declared vicious by county animal control officials, recently was sequestered in Oregon by a worried owner who insists that handing her dog over to authorities is tantamount to sending him to canine Death Row.

On Monday, owner Terry Borrell was sentenced in Vista court in the 3-year-old case, in which she has repeatedly refused to divulge to court officials--or anyone else--Saint’s whereabouts.

Municipal Judge Luther L. Leeger sentenced Borrell to pay a $500 fine and perform 200 hours of community work in the case, which began in 1988 when the dog was declared vicious for having threatened passers-by in Borrell’s Fallbrook neighborhood. And then he banned the dog from the state of California.

Borrell said Monday that she can handle the fine and hours of community labor. But she finds Saint’s banishment from the state cruel and unusual punishment.

“I was born and raised in this area. I have family here. This is home,” she said. “But my dog is also part of my life. So for a judge to say Saint cannot come back to San Diego is like banishing me from the state as well.”

Borrell was convicted in February of failing to keep the dog confined after animal control officials declared that it posed a danger. Before the trial, she had ushered the dog into hiding and would not tell court officials of its location, bringing yet another charge for failing the surrender the dog.

The woman, who previously said she was willing to go to jail rather than let authorities get their paws on her dog, said Monday she was surprised as well as disappointed by the verdict.

“I could have lived with a banishment from the county, to someplace like Riverside or San Bernardino,” Borrell said, her voice breaking. “But I cannot live with this. It means that I’m going to have to move to Oregon to live with my dog.

“The judge has turned me into a homeless person. Who ever thought it would come to this?”

Both Borrell and her attorney say Saint is not vicious, and that he hasn’t bitten anyone. He’s just an excitable dog who likes to bark. Saint, they say, wouldn’t hurt a flea.

The people who complained to authorities about Saint might disagree. Saint was first declared vicious in 1988 after a man visiting a neighbor’s home reported that the dog had ripped a piece out of his trousers and, another time, barked so menacingly that the man felt terrorized. At that point, the county ordered Borrell to keep the dog fenced.

But last July, two meter readers for San Diego Gas & Electric reported that the dog, unfenced and running loose, was snarling at them, teeth bared and hair standing on end. They kept the dog away by swinging sticks topped with rubber balls, they said. They also reported that they had complained to Borrell several times already about Saint’s threatening behavior and about his being unfenced.

“Saint is out of the state. And the way it looks now, the dog is never coming back as part of the court’s dictates,” said Borrell’s attorney, Wayne Brechtel, adding that he planned to appeal the decision.

In the meantime, Saint will remain a canine non grata.

“And the funny thing is,” Brechtel said, “this dog has never bitten anybody.”