Owner of dogs shot by Elgin police ticketed

Police have ticketed the owner of two pit bulls shot and killed in downtown Elgin over the weekend in front of more than 100 people after one bit a 9-year-old boy.

Elgin Deputy Police Chief Cecil Smith said authorities gave the dogs' owner, Sonia Torres, of the 100 block of South Porter Street, four tickets: two counts of having a dog at large and two counts of failure to obtain a rabies inoculation.

Torres is due in court June 15.

Under city law, she can expect to pay at least $200, as the four citations carry a minimum $50 fine for a first offense.

Smith said Torres' dogs did not have any other previous violations.

Smith said that in the past some fines have reached $750 per offense, meaning Torres could face a $3,000 bill. "The judge determines what the fines are to be," Smith said.

Last Friday, police shot the two pit bulls at about 4:44 p.m. near the fountain at Festival Park, 132 S. Grove Ave., after one bit a 9-year-old boy on the left hand and both animals charged at police.

The two dogs were taken to the West Dundee Animal Hospital and euthanized. The boy had minor injuries to his hand.

Officers had been tracking two loose pit bulls for about 30 minutes before the incident. They found both dogs lying in the grass at the park and warned the boy and his friend who were walking down the sidewalk to stay away - but it was too late.

Smith said Torres told police the dogs had been locked in their cages in her backyard but somehow escaped the cage and fence. Torres could not immediately be reached for comment.

Under a batch of new animal control laws that were passed by the Elgin City Council in March but didn't take effect until Tuesday, the penalty could have been more severe.

Under the law, fines for a first offense are $50 to $750 for a dog at large or failure to obtain up-to-date rabies shots.

Had the dogs survived, they likely would have been classified as "dangerous," which triggers a host of regulations including requiring the owner to obtain $1,000 in liability insurance, muzzle the dogs when they are being walked, erect a 6-foot-tall fence if the dogs are to run free in a backyard or muzzle them if they are tethered, and register their dogs with the city.

Fines for violations by dangerous dogs are $1,000 per offense.

Earlier this year, city council members considered a new law automatically classifying all pit bulls as dangerous dogs. But the council backed off after pit bull owners pleaded with the city to "punish the deed, not the breed."