Wolf-dogs spared in dog killing; sanctions set

MUNCIE – Two wolf-dog hybrids will not be put to death but their owner is required to take extra steps in security and safety practices in order to keep them.

The Muncie-Delaware County animal control board met Tuesday evening at Muncie City Hall and unanimously voted to require Stan Stephens to greatly improve the fences — including use of electrified fencing and barb wire — that contain his nine dogs, many of which have wolf genetics.

Stephens — who told the board "I do not want my dogs put down" during the hearing — is also required to keep his dogs outfitted with muzzles and three-foot leashes when they're not behind elaborate fences.

If another incident occurs, the board told Stephens, the punishment that his dogs avoided Tuesday night — euthanasia — will be automatic, authorities told him.

Stephens refused to talk to The Star Press after the meeting, but the owner of the dog killed by Stephens' dogs on May 4 said she felt like justice had been done.

"I feel satisfied," Ashley Reed said after the meeting. "I feel safe knowing those things have to happen. It's not like we were out for the kill."

Emotions were high during the meeting. People on both sides spoke with emotion-choked voices and a supporter of Stephens called one of Reed's supporters a rude term as the crowd filed out of the city hall auditorium.

The facts of the incident were never in dispute. On May 4, Reed had left her eight-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Peyton, out on her patio while she took her oldest child to preschool. Upon returning with her youngest child, she spotted one of Stephens' dogs, Ryg, in her yard, growling at her. Another of Stephens' dogs, Polar Bear, was shaking Reed's dog, causing its death.

The animal control board's chairman, local veterinarian Mike Brown, reminded the audience that the board's decision had to follow the local animal control ordinance.

One of Reed's neighbors testified that on the day Stephens' dogs killed Reed's dog they had also nearly killed her cat, but it got into her porch in time.

Stephens' supporters testified that they couldn't imagine that his dogs would kill another animal, although the facts of the case were never questioned.

Muncie Animal Shelter director Phil Peckinpaugh recommended against euthanasia for the two dogs but recommended that the board impose several conditions, including higher and double fences, electrified fences, that the two dogs be spayed or neutered and that signs warning of dangerous and vicious dogs be posted.

The board added further restrictions, including the muzzles in public and unannounced inspections by the shelter.

Peckinpaugh said he had never heard a report of a rumor raised during testimony, that one of Stephens' dogs had killed a dog in downtown Muncie, where Stephens' bar, Heorot, is located.

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.