Pit bulls bite teen, kill puppy

ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Two pit bulls attacked an Allendale teenager and killed the 4-month-old daschund she was walking Tuesday.

The Ottawa County Sheriff's Department responded at 1:13 p.m. to the 9200 block of South Cedar Drive. Ashley Muir, 18, was walking her dog, Peanutt, in the area when two pit bulls inside a house saw her, jumped through a window and attacked them both, according to investigators.

The pit bulls, Diesel and Riddick, escaped through a window with an air-conditioning unit. The wooden planks holding the unit in place got loose, police confirmed.

"I was terrified," Muir said. "All of a sudden, I hear my dog yelping and it was over. She was dead."

Muir suffered a puncture wound on her arm from a dog bite during the attack. Now, the pit bulls are quarantined to their owners' home. A hearing will be scheduled to determine whether the dogs are vicious, and what should happen to them. A judge could rule they be put to sleep.

"I'm quite concerned at this point," Craig Lick, the dogs’ owner, said. "I don't know what the typical procedure is. I don't want to put my dogs down."

Lick hopes his dogs will be given a second chance. He said the dogs have never had a problem before.

He has plenty of safeguards in place, such as a chain-link fence in the back yard and an invisible, electric fence in the front yard. Lick was not at home when the attack occurred; he received the call with the news while at work.

"It makes me sick to my stomach," Lick said. "You never want to see an animal get hurt."

Muir said she hopes the dogs will be put to sleep. She also said her family may file a civil suit against Lick.

"She just meant a lot," Muir said of Peanutt. "I paid a lot of money for her; not for her to be killed."