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WILKES-BARRE — Neighbors stood on opposite sides of the fence Tuesday in their testimony of what caused the life- threatening injuries to a family pet that ran into one of their adjacent backyards last spring.
Beth Ciliberto described a harrowing attack on Huckleberry, a black and tan coonhound, belonging to her daughter Carrie Amann who was visiting her Lehigh Street home the afternoon of May 4. Their neighbor Beth Gilbert, a Wilkes-Barre city councilwoman, recalled hearing her German shepherds Greta and Wagner barking in her backyard, but said she did not witness them mauling the other dog. Her attorney attributed the injuries to the chain link fence separating their properties.
Amann sought payment of $4,224 in emergency veterinary care from Gilbert in a civil complaint filed before District Justice Rick Cronauer in Wilkes-Barre. Gilbert filed a counter claim for damages to the fence. She said she spent approximately $500 to install plywood in a damaged area and received an estimate of $1,500 from a contractor to put in a new 10-foot section.
Cronauer heard more than an hour of testimony in the two cases and told the parties he would issue his decisions in three to five days.
Ciliberto, the only witness to the alleged attack, said Huckleberry followed her dog Lucy out of the house into the backyard and ran to the area of the fence where Gilbert’s dogs had dug underneath it. One of the dogs came and grabbed Huckleberry by the nose, she continued her testimony. “Instantly Huckleberry flipped over and was completely submissive,” Ciliberto said.
The dog had Huckleberry completely in its mouth and pulling him under the fence, Ciliberto added. She said she lay on the ground and tried to free Huckleberry, eventually pulling up the fence to rescue him. Another neighbor heard her screams, came out and yelled, she said.
Ciliberto said she had contacted the city’s animal control officer previously to complain about Gilbert’s dogs barking and the high grass, weeds and smell of animal waste in the neighboring yard. Animal control did not issue any citations against Gilbert, Ciliberto said, but the property was cleaned up.
The city’s animal enforcement officer Adam Olver responded with a police officer to a 911 call about a dog attack at the residence. He acknowledged knowing Gilbert from her position on city council and answering prior calls about her barking dogs. Olver said he found no evidence of blood and could not say what happened after taking statements. “Both dogs would have to be out of control for that kind of damage,” he said . But rather than issue citations, he said he decided to let the case be handled through a civil complaint.
Amann had been in the house with her two children and heard the noise. She was in town to run a race and celebrate the birthday of one of her children.
“I never heard anyone scream in that way before,”Amann said. She said she made sure the children were all right and ran outside where her mother was with the dog. The dog was bleeding and lacerated, she said.
“I could see exposed skin. I could see exposed muscle,” Amann said. She said she rushed Huckleberry to the Northeast Veterinary Hospital in Plains Township where the dog underwent emergency surgery. The dog is doing well, Amann said.
Gilbert testified her nearly 2-year-old dogs were not aggressive and had been to canine training when she got them in 2017. They each weighed at least 100 pounds and could not crawl under the fence, she said.
The day of the alleged attack she was at home and washing dishes between 3:30 and 4 p.m. when she heard her dogs barking. From her kitchen window that provides an “eagle eye view” of her backyard Gilbert said she saw the neighbor’s dog doing “an army crawl” underneath the fence.
“I don’t know where his injuries came from,” Gilbert said.