Dangerous Dog Appeals Court: Pit bulls found guilty

Jerry Norris says he’s been terrorized by Kenneth Croom’s two pit bulls. The dogs were found to be potentially dangerous two months ago. Croom appealed. That’s how he ended up in dog appeals court Wednesday night.

Dog court panelist Joyce Bradley told Croom: “It doesn’t matter how many signatures you got, and it’s probably a good dog, but you still broke the law.”

Croom replied, “Why make her suffer because I let her out of the fence? Make me suffer. Put me in jail or something like that.”

Bradley added, “If we uphold this decision, none of that is going to change. You’ll still have your dog, and you’ll still be going by the rules and regulations given to you, and the only thing that I can see that we can add to this is to require you to have the dog spayed.”

Croom says he can’t afford for his dog to be spayed, nor does he want that for his one-year-old. His other dog is nearly 13; thus the spaying is not an issue.

“It’s not a normal pit,” Croom said. “It’s been rebred. It doesn’t have the real wide chest.”

Bradley said the breed is not the issue.

“If she goes into heat and you take her out into that yard and there’s a bunch of male dogs around there, it doesn’t matter what type of fence you have,” she said. “You’re going to have an issue on your hands.”

Croom did not like that. He then brought in a human angle to the story.

“Let’s don’t have women have babies no more,” he said. “When they’re born lets go ahead and cut them so they won’t get ill.”

In summary the dangerous dog appeals court panel decided to uphold the dangerous dog label for both of the dogs. Croom will have to abide by all of the rules and regulations that go along with being a dangerous dog. He’s actually thinking about giving one of the dogs away. If he does this he’s required to notify New Hanover County Animal Control.