Thursday, the Hampton City Council held a vicious animal hearing involving a dog owned by Cody and Haley Anderson. The dog was declared vicious by Hampton Police following an incident on April 8th where the dog, a golden retriever, attacked a maltipoo dog, owned by Wendy Buseman, at the Anderson residence along 17th Avenue NE.
Buseman says she stopped to talk with Cody Anderson at the end of his driveway when the attack took place.
“He (Cody) did bend down to try to pet her. It was at this time that Sullivan, golden retriever and the Anderson family dog came running around the east side of their house with a toy in his mouth. And I said to Cody, we had better go because your dog will not like us here. Cody responded, ‘It was okay because he had an underground fence and that the dog couldn’t come out that far.’ Cody was standing in his driveway and the dog came running from around the east side of the house. And then the dog suddenly attacked my dog without provocation. And I yelled, ‘get your dog.’ The injuries were severe. The dog was thrashing our much smaller dog in its mouth until the owner, Cody, tackled it to release her. The smaller dog, mine, was not approaching the owner aggressively, nor was she barking. So I’m sorry, some of the letters that were sent said that he was harmless. I’m sorry, your dog is no longer a harmless dog. My dog suffered extreme wounds as the dog ripped back a large portion of skin off her back, exposing down to the muscle. To date, our family dog has been through two surgeries, dozens of stitches, daily medications, and is still recovering physically, let alone mentally from this incident. This wasn’t just a minor scuffle.”
Cody Anderson says this was the first time their dog was involved in any incident like this.
“I just wanted to apologize for anything that my dog has caused. We are doing everything we can to tone the situation. On Sunday my house will be going up for sale. I just apologize to anybody. I stopped everything as quick as I could. He has never tried to… We see dogs every day walking by the house. He has never had an incident trying to get outside to get anybody and that.”
Following questions from council members and discussion with both parties involved, the Hampton City Council, on a 5-0 vote, declared the dog as nonvicious with a requirement to have a physical fence installed on their property and the dog be removed from the residence until installation is complete. Councilmember Jim Davies did not participate in any discussion and abstained from the vote due to his involvement with the case.
Full minutes below
