Document prepared by: 

Connie Sullivan and Reviewed by Susan Sale, Front-line Victims of Dog Attacks, Involving Dogs in-a-Pack, At-large and Their Repeat Offender Owners

1.             Eternal Gratitude

Gratitude to Senator Norment for his efforts to help bring into law during March 2019, a first time ever fine for at-large dogs, in a pack.  (It is our sincerest hope that in that law, the fine can eventually be escalated, so that the dollar amount of the fine will be viewed as financially significant and therefore a strong deterrent to indifferent negligence when owners/guardians allow their lethal dogs to roam.)

Gratitude to our former, Delegate Pogge and our current, Delegate Batten for their swift efforts to secure a change in the legal language regarding alpacas during the January 2019 legislative session.

Gratitude to our local James City County Board of Supervisors and our Commonwealth Attorney who have recognized the risks and have acted on behalf of the safety of our community against the threats posed by dogs at-large

Gratitude to Delegate Willett during this most recent legislative session.

 Gratitude to VACA and VAAS for their efforts.

2.     Ms. Jobyl A. Boone’s concern:

Allowing the owner of animal found to be dangerous to petition the court for the removal of such a finding after two years.

Upon such petition, the court, taking into consideration the views of the appropriate animal control officer and the compliance of the owner with the provisions of this section, may remove the dangerous dog finding…

Such removal shall relieve the owner of the obligation to renew the dangerous dog registration certificate, but shall not affect the status of the animal as having been previously declared a dangerous dog…

Susan Sale and Connie Sullivan, Front-line Victims and members of the Colonial Heritage Dog Safety Committee in Williamsburg, Virginia join with Jobyl Boone’s concern for the following reason:

It is a small thing to require the owner to renew the dangerous dog registration certificate, but

a huge help to law enforcement and Animal Control, particularly in densely populated areas where the location and ownership of the dogs may not be possible to know without the dangerous dog registration certificate.

Renewing the dangerous dog certificate provides ongoing, continuity of institutional knowledge to law enforcement and Animal Control.  It is important for both to know where the dangerous dogs are.

Connie Sullivan and Susan Sale respectfully request that the statute continue to require the owner to renew the dangerous dog registration certificate yearly, for the safety of humans, companion animals and domestic animals.

3.     Containment Language in Statute Regarding Dangerous Dogs Regarding a Securely Enclosed and Locked Structure

Respectfully request that consideration be made to include specific language to this effect:

Use of an ascending scale for containment that is appropriate to the size, strength, nature and capacity of the dangerous dog/dogs needing to be contained, which is “designed to prevent its escape or direct contact with or entry by minors, adults or other animals”.

i.e. concrete footers, fencing height, roof lid for larger, aggressive dogs

4.     Members of the Colonial Heritage Dog Safety Committee in Williamsburg, Virginia Respectfully Request

Consideration of the Following Statute Change by the Virginia Legislature:

Prohibiting Ownership or Possession of Any Dogs

after owners/guardians are found guilty of allowing dog(s) to run at- large, after already being declared dangerous dog(s).

5.     Timely Dangerous Dog Hearings

Respectfully request that language become a part of the statute as a matter of best practice that the dangerous dog hearing will occur as quickly as it can appear on the local jurisdiction’s docket, following the incident, 

given the resources of the courts/law enforcement/animal control and the availability of participant, judges, dog owners, and victims.

(Hearings held within 10 days after a dog attack are not possible as a universal rule in all parts of our state, due to differing times court is in session, in different parts of the state of Virginia and other factors, such as the ones listed above.)

6.     Checklist for Victims to Be Better Informed and Prepared for Dangerous Dog Hearing

While the dispute during a Dangerous Dog Hearing is between the dog’s or dogs’ owners/custodians and the Commonwealth, the victim benefits in numerous ways from being prepared in advance of the hearing. 

We therefore respectfully request that the appropriate parties in local jurisdictions throughout the state of Virginia, take this under consideration as the need for a victim’s checklist is an urgent and present one.

7.     Safe to Rescue

Following the sheer terror and heartbreak of the attacks on companion animals in our Williamsburg community, we are unified in a commitment to work toward safety for humans, companion animals and domestic animals.  We ask that those in a position to send dogs into homes and communities first fully vet the dogs’ histories, in the responsible stance of first doing no, uninformed harm.

Respectfully request that the State of Virginia’s legislature appropriately designate experts, such as animal behaviorists, the state animal law attorney, or others deemed appropriate by the state … to consider the need for the development of a revised, safe to rescue scale/checklist for our state.

Respectfully request consideration be made that persons implementing this scale be qualified to certify that the dog or dogs is/are safe to rescue and the person(s) would also be required to affix their signature to the safe to rescue certificate.

Connie Sullivan, One of Three Victims on December 11, 2016 -  Backstory

I do not and have never held the three large aggressive dogs, moving in unsupervised, instinctive pack drive mode that lethal night, as responsible for what happened.

I do, however, hold their owner and custodian fully responsible for what happened.  (My focus is on legal, peaceful means that impact any indifferent and negligent owners in the state of Virginia or elsewhere in the world.)

I think it is tragic that sometimes dogs are specifically bred to be lethal and equally tragic that some of those same dogs are doomed to be euthanized.

Where is the love of all God’s Creatures, Great and Small, in that kind of beginning and potential end for some large, aggressive dogs?

Sunday, December 11, 2016 – took my twin Westies for an after dinner, leashed walk, near our home in a residential community.

It was dark and cold – neighbors’ doors and windows closed

Terriers are natural barkers, but that night when surrounded,  as if by stealth warriors, my dogs were silent.

Lucy guarded me with her body taking the position in nature, of submission

Michael took the position in nature of fear, curling into a fetal position.

The three large aggressive, at-large dogs surrounded us, trying at first to knock me over.

I remember thinking, “This is it.” and then saying, “Now and at the hour of our death.”

Then two of the three large aggressive dogs went directly to Lucy and Michael. 

Each of those two large aggressive dogs took one of each of my dogs and held them in their gripped, locked jaws.

The third large aggressive dog darted in and out attacking my dogs’ backs as they hung like haunches of beef on meat hooks in a slaughterhouse.

It was cruelty piled upon cruelty.

I do know that I screamed for 15 minutes, calling, “Help me, they are killing my dogs!”

I do not remember when or how the three large aggressive dogs managed to remove the sweaters from my dogs’ bodies,

but it had to be horrifically painful because the sweaters remained buttoned when later found by a neighbor, hurled into the street that night.

I had to witness my female dog’s eyes change as her throat was fatally pierced.

I had to witness my male dog be repositioned in the gripped locked jaws of his would-be killer, at which time Michael let out an angry snarl, but was easily silenced.

After 15 minutes when my screams were responded to, a neighbor came from behind, with a shovel, striking the buttocks of the two large aggressive dogs who were gripping and locking my two dogs.

Then and only then did those two large aggressive dogs release my dogs.

Had the police and Animal Control not arrived almost simultaneously, I am not certain of what would have happened to my neighbor, my dogs and myself because the two large aggressive dogs had only sulked off to the near-by woods and were watching the scene.

When I looked at Michael laying on the frozen ground I could not detect that he was breathing.  The Emergency Room vet later explained to me that he was in such serious shock that his breathing became extremely shallow.

The vet advised that it did not look promising.  In my rational mind, I knew how could it possibly look good after what my two Westies had endured?

I know I was operating on adrenaline to get me through what I needed to get through. 

My throat was raw like someone had slit it from the 15 minutes of screaming and my heart and head pounded for two days. 

I do not know why I did not have a stroke, but I have been on high blood pressure medication since then.

I could not read the medical description of either dogs’ injuries for more than a year after the attack,

just as I could not speak of any of this without crying for two years.

Lucy had lacerations to the trachea, a crushed cervical anatomy, severe bruising, multiple bite wounds and pulmonary contusions.  She was bitten down to the cartilage.  Lucy died at 4:30 a.m. on December 12th. Borrowing from Robert Frost,  “As dawn goes down-to-day, nothing gold can stay”.

She was the heart of our home.  Michael and Lucy were littermates and loved each other, played with each other, depended on each other.  

Michael was at the point of full on internal bleed-out but was saved by his persistent and talented surgical vets at Anderson’s Corner Animal Hospital in Toano, VA.  He was in the hospital from the 11th of December to Christmas Eve that month in 2016.

Instead of coming in from a routine evening walk to cuddle and rest, Lucy was sentenced to eternal rest before her natural time, by eight full years.

Michael mourned her death and his own traumatic attack for close to a year, but then was able to unexpectedly return to his happy self with moments of PTSD when circumstances provoked that fear.

I spent over two years meeting with a trauma therapist which was essential to my capacity to move on from such a chilling, frightening, heartless, hopeless night.

Walking was a simple, shared pleasure for us that now has become a fearsome burden.  We still never know when a lethal, pack of large aggressive dogs at-large will return.  I drive Michael to the other side of our community to walk him.

Then in October of 2018, the same large aggressive dog who killed Lucy, seriously wounded my neighbor’s dog, attacking with a different large aggressive pack partner. (Her attack partner from 2016 had been euthanized in 2017.) My neighbor’s dog, (Susan Sale - owner), needed to be put down a few days later, due to the extent of his injuries.  That large aggressive dog who viciously attacked my neighbor’s dog had already been declared dangerous when she killed my dog, but in October of 2018, almost two years later, she was out without a collar, running at-large with another large aggressive dog.

In 2017, it was a civil case, but now became a criminal case.  Following the Dangerous Dog Hearing in March 2019, the owner and the custodian were ordered to have no dogs of any kind for ten years.

In the attack on my Westies, two of the three large aggressive, at-large dogs are identified as the number one lethal breed on insurance actuary charts. The third at-large aggressive dog in that attack, is listed second in terms of lethal breed, on insurance actuary charts. With indifferent repeat offenders living in proximity, our community remains at risk.  In college, I raised concern to my World Literature professor for the number of literary pieces we were required to read in which many of the protagonists displayed no remorse.  My professor advised that the materials I was expected to read when I was nineteen, were my best preparation for the yet unknown difficulties ahead in life.

Thanking you for whatever efforts you can make to try to protect humans, pets and domestic animals from the unimaginable harm that comes to them in circumstances such as what I have described here.

First, do no harm is not just for the medical profession.  It is a maxim for humanity.

Connie Sullivan, Member of Local Dog Safety Committee, Williamsburg, Virginia

(My male dog is now suffering from debilitating Westie Lung disease and pulmonary hypertension, so I am at present preoccupied with his care.  I accept that life is both beautiful and unfair.  My beautiful surviving dog suffered enough when we were attacked by three at-large aggressive dogs.