Killer Pit Bulls Are Allowed Home, but With Restrictions

Two pit bulls that killed a neighbor’s two dogs have been returned to their owner in Huntington Beach after he complied with a judge’s restrictions to protect the public and neighbors.

Jeffrey Harris was able to bring Ryno and Patches back to their Carp Circle home Jan. 24 after he bought a $500,000 insurance policy, built an enclosed chain-link dog run in the rear yard, reinforced a wood fence and installed a steel security screen door.

Those measures and several others, however, are not enough to erase neighbor Denise Cassaro’s fears. Those were her dogs that were killed.

“I’m scared of him [Harris] getting lazy in seven or eight months and forgetting about the law,” Cassaro said.

Harris declined to comment.

The pit bulls broke through a weak spot in the backyard fence in June and chased Cassaro’s Labrador retriever and Shih Tzu through an open back door into the house and killed them. The family was away when the attack occurred.

The pit bulls were removed by county animal control officers and were penned while their fate was decided in court.

Cassaro and animal control officials had argued that the attack was so brutal that the pit bulls should be put to death.

Harris sued in November to prevent animal control from carrying out its decision. Orange County Superior Court Judge Nho Trong Nguyen spared the dogs’ lives because they had attacked other dogs and not humans and because this was their first violent incident.

Cassaro said the pain of losing her two friends, Jake and Gizmo, was compounded when the judge allowed the pit bulls to return.

“I guess the first kill is free,” she said.

Nguyen also ordered that when the pit bulls are not inside Harris’ house or the dog run, they must wear a muzzle and be restrained by a leash no longer than 6 feet and held by an adult.

“Beware of Dog” signs had to be placed at all of the home’s entrances, and Harris is not allowed to have more than three dogs on the property.

Animal Control spokesman Howard Sutter said, “We will be doing unannounced patrol checks, which we have done since they were returned, and that will continue,” to make sure the judge’s requirements are followed.

Harris must also have the dogs sterilized within 30 days of their return.

“That’s because they are typically less aggressive if they are spayed and neutered,” Sutter said.

Cassaro, her husband, Joe, and their two young sons, Travis and Danny, have brought another Labrador, named Murphy, into their home.

Cassaro, however, is haunted by what happened to Jake and Gizmo.

“What if my kids had been in the house?” she asked, shaking at the thought of what might have happened.

She said she had pointed out to Harris the holes the pit bulls made in the fence separating the properties several times, and he would cover them.

“He was responsive to me, but he would never do anything on his own,” Cassaro said.