Pit bulls remain in custody

Thursday, April 5, 2001 | 11:30 a.m.

The first time Thelma Yandric saw the tiny terrier-dachshund mix she would later call "Hooch," he was a puppy scampering across a rest stop parking lot in Utah.

The last time was when she entered her Las Vegas home to find his bloodied body on the white tiles of her living room floor. Three growling pit bulls stood nearby.

Yandric's dog was killed Monday after her neighbors' pit bulls dug a hole under the fence separating their properties in the 3900 block of El Parque, near the intersection of Oakey Boulevard and Arville Street. They squeezed through a dog door to get into her home.

The dogs, owned by Rodney Williams, are in custody at the city animal control shelter, said Lt. Jeff Dufrene of the city of Las Vegas Department of Detention and Enforcement.

When a dog attacks another animal, rather than a person, the investigating officers have more leeway in handling the situation, Dufrene said.

The pit bulls involved in the attack were originally returned to Williams after he agreed to lock the animals in the house, Dufrene said. But animal control officers made a second visit to the home Wednesday and seized the dogs after determining that the backyard fence wasn't secure enough, Dufrene said.

Williams would have to pay $150 to get the three dogs returned and would also have to install a more secure fence, Dufrene said.

If Williams decides to forfeit ownership, the dogs could possibly be put up for adoption but, because of the violent attack on Hooch, are more likely to be destroyed, Dufrene said.

Reached at home Wednesday, Williams declined comment. Yandric said today that Williams and his wife, Tammy Cain, have not yet apologized for the attack.

Yandric has thrown out the stained carpet and cleaned up the blood. She said it will be harder to forget her final image of Hooch.

"He had an under-bite, no two hairs in the same direction and was as bow-legged as a cowboy, but he was the sweetest little guy you would ever want to meet," said Yandric of her 2-year-old dog. "He didn't deserve to die the way he did."