Tuesday, June 28, 2011

For the second time, neighbor's dogs kill family pet

ROSEVILLE, MI -- Jewel Kadelak lives on Roseville Boulevard in Roseville with her husband and daughter. They say they just want to live in peace and quiet and to be left alone.

Nick and LuLu were killed by the neighbor's pit bull

But it’s not easy. They had three dogs over a year ago and now have only one. One dog was mauled to death a year ago by their neighbor’s pit bull that climbed over the fence and mauled their 11-pound Miniature Pinscher.

At the time, the Kadelaks’ neighbor, Louis Morin, was arrested by police and charged with a violation of a city ordinance for not having his dog under control. He was placed on probation and ordered to keep his dog in an enclosed yard where it wouldn’t be a hindrance to anyone.

Just last Wednesday the same thing happened all over again.

Morin’s two dogs allegedly got into Jewel’s backyard by digging a hole under their wooden privacy fence and killed another of her dogs.

“Our whole family is devastated,” Jewel said while wiping back tears from her face. “But this guy moved in here three years ago and doesn’t care about his neighbors.

“Thank God a little kid wasn’t in the yard. The kid would have been dead.”

Roseville Deputy Police chief Anthony Cona said Morin was arrested Thursday and charged with probation violation.

Due to the first incident last August the police arrested Morin and both of his dogs, a pit bull and Rottweiler were confiscated and taken to the Macomb County Animal Shelter, Cona said.

Morin is free on personal bond. A court date has been set for 8:30 a.m. July 19.

Jewell said her neighbors are junk collectors. She said it isn’t hard for her neighbors’ dogs to jump on some of the junk they have in their yard and get over the fence.

“They had a makeshift kennel back there, a kind of confined space for the dogs to live in,” Jewell said. “But when their dog killed our dog last year and they didn’t seem to care, well, that was it.”

Jewell said she couldn’t believe Morin wasn’t apologetic. She said she thought it was a shame that Judge Marco Santia of the 39th District Court only fined Morin a small amount of money and put him on probation.

What made matters even worse, Jewell said, her daughter, Imagine, witnessed the first attack. She said Imagine still isn’t herself after watching the family dog get mauled by a dog three times its size.

This time, Jewell and her husband, Sam, were out of the house for two hours. Their dog, Nick, was let outside and Jewell said she thought it was safe because they have a 6-foot privacy fence.

“I came home with Sam and went outside to find Nick,” Jewell said. “I looked all over but couldn’t find him because it was dark.”

Jewell said Sam went outside and screamed. He yelled at her to call police.

They found Nick dead. She said their neighbor came outside and said it wasn’t his dog that killed Nick.

Roseville police found a large hole under the wooden fence.

Police seized two dogs from Morin. A third dog at Morin's house belongs to another person.

(Morning Sun - June 28, 2011)