Dog owners confused by claims of dangerous dogs

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

Teila Gore said Wednesday she was confused by accounts of abused and dangerous animals at her home.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “Nobody’s come by here to talk to me. None of these people have ever knocked on my door and said they had a problem.”

Gore, her husband Joseph, and her sister, Jessica, live at 200 N. Thompson Street in Whiteville, beside Edgewood School. Teila Gore, 21, said she and her family have lived in the home since “I was in the fourth grade at Edgewood.”

“People used to complain about our mom’s dogs,” she said, “but at least they spoke to us about it.”

Jennie Greco, whose son attends the school, told the Whiteville City Council Tuesday that Jessica Gore’s pit bull, Omega, attacked another dog in the pen, seriously injuring the animal. The pit is kept in a separate fenced part of the yard that borders the school property. Greco said her son and other students witnessed the attack.

Greco told the council that the Gores’ dogs bark at students, parents, and people exercising in the area, and that the yard often smells of dog feces. Greco also worried that Omega might break her chain, climb a fence and attack a child.

Jessica Gore said the dog has to be chained, because she’s “a climber.”

“We let her off the chain to run around and play,” Gore said, “but we have to make sure she doesn’t climb the fence. (Omega) and another one are real bad for wanting to climb and run, but they’ve never hurt anybody.”

Rescue dogs

Gore said the fight Greco detailed involved two other dogs, including one named Precious, but not Omega.

“It just happened over there by Omega’s pen,” she said.

Precious was injured in the fight, but not seriously.

Gore said she was later euthanized because of heartworms, not because of the fight as was reported in the city council meeting.

“She’s had a hard life,” Gore said.

Precious, a mixed-breed female, was found on the side of a country road, Gore said.

“She was all cut up, and her hip was broken,” Gore said. “She was so sickly I didn’t know she was pregnant until she started showing.”

Those 12 puppies died, Gore said, and before Gore could get Precious spayed, she was stolen – likely because of her resemblance to a bulldog.

Gore found Precious and brought her home, malnourished, sick – and pregnant.

Five of those puppies survived, Gore said, because the women bottle fed them after Precious was stolen again.

“They had their own little basket,” Jessica Gore said. “They had to be fed just like their momma would, every two hours.”

Precious was near death when Gore got her back the second time.

“The vet was wanting to get her built up some before they did the surgery on her,” Teila Gore said.

Gore said she could understand the complaints about the dogs’ destroying stuffed animals, but said she keeps the fluff cleaned up.

“I don’t know where they’re getting them from,” she said. “My sister said she thinks there might be some in the barn – I wonder if somebody’s throwing them in here.”

Medical care for several of the animals can be expensive, Gore said – at least one has a chronic skin condition that requires medicine that costs $100 per month.

Gore said the dogs are kept up-to-date on their vaccinations, and efforts to find homes for them have been unsuccessful.

Gore said she spends time with the dogs every day, cleans the pen, and makes sure they have clean food and water.

Omega, the pit bull, lives in a separate part of the yard, chained to a large magnolia tree.
The separate pen was built years ago to house rescued dogs and strays.

“My mom (the former Loretta Gore) was a member of the humane society when she was here,” Jessica Gore said, “and people used to complain about the dogs.

Other people just dumped dogs off in our yard. It’s hard to find good homes for them.”

Good dog, bad reputation.

Jessica Gore has had Omega since the puppy was six weeks old. While pits have a reputation for aggressive behavior, Gore said Omega is “sweet.”

“She would rather hide than confront a human,” she said.

The dog is gentle with the sisters’ 3-year-old niece, and “has never even had a problem with dogs at the vet’s office,” Jessica Gore said.

“She doesn’t fight,” Gore said. “She doesn’t get excited. Any dog will bark when someone comes up – that’s what they’re supposed to do. But she isn’t an attack dog. She ducks her head down.”

Omega has a large chain in the separate pen, Gore said, because the sisters wanted to keep their dogs apart.

“When I moved in with them (Joseph and Teila),” Gore said, “that’s what we decided would be best. Dogs fuss sometimes just like humans, and they’re apt to fight if there’s a stranger around. Any dog will do that.”

On Wednesday, the entire yard had been freshly raked, and Teila Gore was cleaning up piles of trash before heading back to work.

Gore says picking up after the animals is a regular activity.

The dogs barked a greeting at this writer when he approached Gore, but none of the animals behaved in an aggressive manner. The five 1-year-old mixed breeds played and bounced around Gore as she entered the pen. Another dog was secured in a storage building with her own food, water, couch and electric heater to keep her from climbing the fence and running at large.

Omega and the other five dogs appeared eager to make friends, allowing themselves to be petted while they licked this writer’s hands.

The dogs barked briefly when a school bus went by, but showed no real interest in a child walking down the opposite side of the street.

Omega watched this writer closely before ducking her head and wagging her tail.

Gore said that since she ‘works “long hours,” she can be hard to contact, but “we aren’t that hard to find.”

“I’m embarrassed,” Jessica Gore said. “We work for a living, so we can’t be here during the day when these people say they’ve come by to see us. If you want to really make an effort to see someone, you should really try. Someone’s here every evening, and a lot of times during the day.”

Jessica Gore said she and her sister’s husband rescued Precious the last time she was stolen, retrieving the dog from a pen where she was kept with 10 Rottweilers.

“Where were these people who are concerned about animals when we were getting my sister’s dog back?” she said. “Are they going after the people that stole Precious and locked her up with those 10 dogs?”

Both women said Omega is gentle, and they want to “get along” with their neighbors at the school and elsewhere.

The dog is kept on a large chain because she broke three previous tethers, Jessica Gore said, and will climb the fence if allowed to run loose unsupervised.

“All I want to do is talk to anyone who’s scared,” Taila said, pointing at Omega. “Look at that dog wagging her tail – does that look aggressive to you?”

Jessica Gore said she plans to ask for the chance to speak to the city council, and if they’ll allow it, she’ll bring Omega.

“I want people to see this isn’t a dangerous dog,” she said.