Erika Gilstrap has filed a lawsuit against Burt Baker III, along with several others, for the pit bull attack that left her son, Justin Gilstrap, hospitalized.
From Jan. 6, the date of the attack, through the end of the month, Columbia County Animal Services has received some 150 complaints regarding dogs in the area. Most of the complaints are for roaming dogs, but more than a dozen were for attacks by dogs on humans or other animals.
Neither the Animal Services Committee nor the County Commission has held a formal meeting in response to the Jan 6 attack. Columbia County Chairman Doug Duncan previously agreed to be interviewed in relation to the issue but rescinded the offer after the family filed a lawsuit against multiple unnamed defendants in addition to Baker.
If Columbia County were to enact any new policies or procedures in response to the Jan. 6 attack and the ensuing fallout, those new policies would come initially from the seven-member animal services board. The next scheduled meeting for the advisory board is March 8 at the Animal Services Building at 3 p.m. After that, the proposed items would go through the Community and Emergency Services Committee, whose next scheduled meeting after the advisory board convenes is the morning of Tuesday, March 28.
Among the more recent incidents as a Jan. 17 call to which Animal Services responded at Burks Mountain Road in Appling regarding a brown pit bull attacking a goat. The responding officer spoke with the complainant Stacey Deas, a neighbor of the property where the goat was being housed, who said she saw the dog attacking the goat before running it off. The Animal Services officer could not locate the canine after searching the area but did issue a trap to Deas.
According to the report, another neighbor told the Animal Services officer he had seen the pit bull roaming the area along with a smaller black one.
On Jan. 19, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a tan and white male pit bull having killed four goats at a property on Spring Creek Road in Grovetown. In that case, the complainant’s neighbor, the owner of the canine, later surrendered it to Animal Services.
The Animal Services Advisory Board is “authorized to propose, for adoption by the board of commissioners, rules and regulations covering the operation of the Animal Services Department,” according to county ordinances.
The county would not comment on Gilstrap’s lawsuit or whether Animal Services is currently considering updating its procedures in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack or other canine complaints. The county say in a statement, however, that the Augusta Press would be notified if there were any “change direction in [its] current policies and ordinances.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
