Dog Labeled A Danger After Biting Detective During Drug Lab Raid

A dog that bit a sheriff’s detective while he searched a suspected Spokane Valley drug lab last month was found to be dangerous.

Spokane County Commissioner Steve Hasson ordered the dog’s owner, Donald Boe, to keep his German shepherd inside a house or in a pen with a roof on it, post warning signs around the pen and buy insurance for the dog.

“For the safety of everyone involved, that dog has to be kept away from the public,” Hasson said.

Boe’s dog, Baby, broke the claps on the end of a cable leash and attacked sheriff’s Sgt. George Wigen on Dec. 22. The dog ripped through Wigen’s clothes and tore gashes in his left thigh and right arm.

Wigen was searching a house for a suspected drug lab when he was attacked.

The attack was the second time the dog has bitten a person in six months.

Nancy Sattin, Spokane County Animal Control director, deemed the dog dangerous on Jan. 2.

Boe appealed to Hasson, saying the dog was frightened by Wigen, provoking the attack.

“He wasn’t raised to be vicious,” Boe said. “He’s just protective.”

Sattin argued that on another occasion the dog had knocked an 11-year-old girl to the ground and bitten her several times.

SpokAnimal classified the dog as potentially dangerous following that attack in June, Sattin said.

The dog has been confined at the county animal shelter since the attack on Wigen. It will not be returned to Boe until he meets all of the criteria for keeping a dangerous dog.

Barking dispute settled

Charges against two Valley dog owners will be dismissed in a year if no other violations are reported against them during that period, a District Court judge ruled Thursday.

Leslie Stevenson and Mitchell Wasson were each cited twice in November by Spokane County Animal Control after neighbor Carol Woodward complained that their dogs barked excessively.

Stevenson was also cited for having a dog at large after her beagle got into Woodward’s yard.

The judge reduced the fine for that infraction from $76 to $10.

Stevenson has taken the dog to a relative’s house to live. Wasson and his wife, Amy, are selling their house in the Valley and have purchased a new home in West Spokane.

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