Rare Hearing to Decide the Fate of 2 Dogs : Animals: Witnesses accuse the Rottweilers, who face a death sentence, of tripping and frightening them. The owner and his family say the pets are good-natured.

The fate of their family pets hanging in the balance, Rocky Hale called his teen-age daughter to the witness stand.

“Do you love your dogs?” the father asked, sobbing.

“Yes,” said Tami Hale, a Newbury Park eighth-grader.

“Do you want your dogs to be killed?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

“Do your dogs deserve to be killed?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

At issue were two Rottweilers, Heidi and Rommel, who have repeatedly escaped to chase, trip and, it is said, sometimes bite neighbors. In an unusual proceeding known as a dangerous-dog hearing that stretched more than four hours Thursday, the Hale family fought to save Rommel from a death sentence and Heidi from a spaying.

Hale, an inspector for the Camarillo public works department, vowed to leave no stone unturned in the defense of his dogs. Sam Morris, the hearing officer from Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control, said the hearing was by far the longest he has seen in almost three years of conducting them.

Officials said there were only three or four dangerous-dog hearings a year in all of Los Angeles County. A verdict will be announced within 10 days.

Animal control officers and fearful neighborhood residents said the dogs were dangerous and their owners had proved themselves unable to control them.

John Andersen said one of the dogs tripped him and bit his running partner at 6 a.m. on Nov. 16. “I’m still scared,” said the 137-pound Andersen, who said he runs 70 to 80 miles a week.

Rommel, the male dog and the older of the two, weighs 130 pounds.

Andersen suffered scrapes and cuts from his fall, but returned to the neighborhood after the attack to assist animal control officers in capturing the dogs.

Another neighbor, Virginia Suggs, said her husband had been attacked by the dogs while riding his bike.

“He had to get off his bike and use his bike as a shield, because the dog was still coming on,” Suggs said. “He was very scared.”

One neighbor, a dog owner herself, described stalking the dogs in a car with a camera, trying to get pictures to prove they were running loose. Another dog owner accused the Hales of a “lack of concern,” because the dogs were out “a lot.”

“I could feel the fear coming up my legs,” said one neighbor. “I was afraid because they were coming at me and one of them was growling.”

Hale said his neighbors disliked him because he played loud music, had a broken-down truck in his front yard and owned the large dogs.

Hale, who said he has always wanted to be a lawyer, raised a series of questions about the testimony of his neighbors and about the propriety of the proceeding itself.

Hale said Andersen “could have tripped over a pothole. He could have tripped over anything.”

Even if the dog did trip Anderson, why didn’t it finish off its prey? Hale asked.

“Where are the bodies? Where are the victims?,” he asked. “They’re Rottweilers. They intimidate people, but they are not vicious. People are afraid of the breed.”

Hale said he recently built a dog-proof enclosure in his back yard, believing that doing so could avert a dangerous-dog hearing and guarantee the return of his dogs.

Hale said Animal Control Sgt. Frank Bongiorno had derailed the compromise. Bongiorno greeted Hale with a handshake at the start of the hearing, but Hale showed nothing but contempt for him.

“If I’d have known it was you I wouldn’t have shaken your hand,” Hale said to Bongiorno.

The bad blood between the two goes back to June, when, according to testimony, Bongiorno threatened the Hales with hefty fines and jail time for failing to control their dogs. But Bongiorno said the fines and risk of jail would disappear if the Hales would only sign their dog over to the county.

“If we would have taken his intimidation, our dogs would be dead right now,” Hale said Thursday. “The man has been vindictive. He’s been out to get our Rottweilers.”

Bongiorno said Rommel was “aggressive” and a danger to public safety. Heidi, when with Rommel, has a “pack mentality,” he added.

Hale said he was notified only Tuesday that the hearing was going to take place Thursday.

“That’s not enough time to prepare a case,” said Ventura County Humane Society President Joyce George, who faxed a statement to Hale Thursday. The statement, which Hale read in the board room at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, called for the hearing to be postponed.

In addition to calling his daughter Tami as a witness, Hale also called his wife, Peggy, his 17-year old son, Shane, and his 6-year old daughter, Tanya. They all testified that the dogs were good-natured. Tanya said Rommel slept on the floor next to her bed.

The youths said they had taken the dogs to school and to the beach without any problems.

*

The dogs were being held at the Agoura Animal Shelter and not present at the hearing. “They can’t testify,” said Bob Ballenger of the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control.

Hale said he was not optimistic about the dogs’ chances. “We’ll lose Rommel. There’s not a doubt in my mind about that,” he said.

Morris, the hearing officer, will recommend a decision to the director of animal care and control, who will make a decision on the case. The decision is subject to appeal, but Hale said he probably lacks the funds to pursue the case further.

Los Angeles County handles an imal control for the city of Thousand Oaks under a 2-year-old contract.