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IOW dog owners charged in vicious attack

Posted at 6:06 PM, Feb 25, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-25 18:06:47-05

Isle of Wight County, Va. - On Monday, Isle of Wight County Animal Control charged 47-year-old Celine Fulmore with having two dangerous dogs.

Those dogs, a larger mixed breed named Baby and a black lab mix named Little Man along with a pit bull mix are accused of killing 10-year-old Jessica Coffield's best friend, Shadow last week.

Today, NewsChannel 3 took action and went to Fulmore's home.

She didn't want to do an interview with us, but she invited us inside to see for ourselves that her dogs aren’t vicious.

As Little Man lay calmly on the couch, the pit bull mix sat on the lap of NewsChannel 3’s Jackie Morlock.

Fulmore's daughter, 19-year-old Dana Brewer, owns the pit bull mix named Jade; the animal thought by officials to be the leader of the attack.

“I was so in shock because she loves every dog she's ever met. I just, this is just not her,” Brewer says.

But extremely gruesome photos of Jessica's dog Shadow disemboweled after the attack tell a very different story.

“It looks horrible, it does,” Brewer says looking at the photos for the first time.

Brewer went on to explain the attack, “Honestly, because we were told by a close friend of their's that it was over scraps."

NewsChannel 3 took Brewer's story to Imeleta Wright who witnessed the whole thing and tried fighting off all three dogs.

"That is a lie and I know that there were no scraps over there,” Wright says.

Not only does Wright say there were no scraps, she also says Brewer and her mother's dogs are constantly out roaming the neighborhood. In fact, Wright says she caught them in her yard a couple days ago, even though animal control ordered the family to keep their dogs confined until the case is heard in court.

“We don't. We don't let our dogs roam out,” Brewer responded.

Brewer hasn't been charged just yet, but officials say they expect to serve her a dangerous dog petition for Jade on Tuesday.

Brewer says she does take responsibility for the role her dog played in the attack. Her biggest fear though is that a judge will deem her dog vicious which could result in the animal being put down.

“Just like their dogs have got out before, our dogs have got out and unfortunately this time when our dogs got out, this happened and I feel really bad for the family, I do.” Brewer adds, “But then again two wrongs don't make a right and killing my dog is not going to make their dog come back.”

Fulmore will go before a judge next month for the two charges against her.

Related: 

Isle of Wight family’s dog killed after a vicious attack by neighboring dogs

Beach woman says dog was attacked and killed by another dog