The Lewis County Dangerous Animal Designation Board has ruled that a local dog with a history of biting people is dangerous.
The board made the determination during a hearing at the Lewis County Courthouse on Monday, June 2.
The board found the lab-malinois mix named George to be dangerous by default during the hearing after the dog's owner, Randy Small, of Winlock, failed to appear and offer a defense.
Records acquired by The Chronicle from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office tell a story of years worth of citations against the dog's owner, who did little to prevent the large dog from biting multiple people, including a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputy.
Board members and Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Special Services Chief Jacob Frase said it's rare that a dog's owner fails to appear, even when evidence against the dog is damning.
The ruling from the board ultimately puts an end to a more than a year-long ordeal of an out-of-control dog biting passersby. It came to an end when the boyfriend of the dog's original victim ran into the dog by chance and reported it to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office.
That run-in happened roughly a month ago on May 6 when Tyler Mikita, of Winlock, found the dog in the middle of Conrad Road dragging a leash.
In the related incident report, Community Service Officer Dave Sims noted that the owner of the dog, Small, already had 10 citations related to similar incidents. Five of the citations were for animal at large and five for were for “animal violation,” which refers to a list of restricted activities, such as allowing an animal to threaten people, livestock or other animals.
Mikita told the responding officer, Sims, that he attempted to help the dog out of the roadway before it could be hit by a car but that it quickly became aggressive.
“Mikita said the dog then began biting at his vehicle tires, and he had his window down some and yelled at the dog, at which time the dog lunged at his window,” according to the report. “Mikita explained he thought the dog was going to come through the window.”
According to the report, that's when Mikita recognized the dog as the same one that had attacked his girlfriend, Cabrina Hollandsworth, of Winlock, more than a year earlier.
The earliest of the three incident reports filed with the Dangerous Animal Designation Board is from June 2024 and details the previous incident with Hollingsworth. According to the report, the incident occurred when a group of dogs exited a nearby house and surrounded Hollandsworth after she had stopped and exited her car to move a seemingly abandoned puppy out of the roadway.
One of the dogs, an all black lab-malinois mix, then bit her on the inner thigh, not drawing blood but leaving marks.
Another incident report provided to the board from less than two months later describes another attack occurring when deputies responded to an animal complaint near Winlock. The call came from a neighbor who described multiple dogs coming to his property and threatening people by surrounding them in their cars or making them fearful to leave the house.
According to a report from one of the deputies, the two deputies responded to the call by arriving at the house said to be the home of the multiple dogs. Quickly after arriving and exiting the car, one deputy was surrounded by a group of dogs and bitten by one in particular, tearing the deputy’s pants open and leaving a wound that required a visit to a hospital where the deputy received a stitch to close the wound.
“As soon as (the deputy) got out of the driver's side of his patrol vehicle, I witnessed five dogs running from the front door of the residence toward (him),” the second deputy wrote in his report. “Once these five dogs got to (the deputy), they began barking, snarling and showing their teeth in a ‘pack’ mentality. I heard (the deputy) yell ‘owe’ and watched him do movements trying to get the dogs off him or away from him.”
After the incident, the case was taken up by Lewis County Humane Officer Alishia Hornburg, who reportedly identified Small as having more than five complaints related to similar incidents with his dogs and recommended that the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office file criminal charges.
The sheriff's office was unable to confirm if Small had been charged by the county, but the Washington State Courts database shows Small being tried as the defendant in Lewis County District Court against unknown charges eight times since the summer of 2023.
Despite possible criminal charges against Small, his dog, George, was not referred to the Dangerous Animal Designation Board because, according to the incident reports, officers could not be sure which of Small’s dogs was aggressive. However, reports from the incident in May of this year detail Small identifying an aggressive black dog named George, which was then referred to the board by Sims.
Now that the dog has been found to be dangerous by the Lewis County Dangerous Animal Designation Board, Small will have five days after receiving notice of the designation to comply with county rules regulating dangerous animals. Washington State Law provides three ways that the owner of a dangerous dog can comply, the first two being euthanization either by a chosen veterinarian or by the county, and the last requiring a series of criteria to be met, such as the dog being held within an enclosure with signs posted, a fee paid to the county and proof of homeowners or renters insurance.
As Small was not at the board meeting, the five-day deadline will not start until he is served notice of his dog's designation.
