About 6 months ago my father’s Jack Russell Terrier was attacked by three pit bulls, who belonged to a neighbor, and was nearly eaten to death. The attack happened in my father’s backyard, the pit bulls dug under a fence to get into his yard. My father was the only witness and the owner of the pit bulls is stating that it was not her dogs who were involved in the attack. These dogs have a history of attacks, about two years ago one of them scaled a fence to get into my parents back yard and attacked my GSD.

Because of the extensive medical bills, my father was forced to file a civil lawsuit to recoup expenses. During mitigation, the defendant stated that her dogs are very socialized and safe, and she is going to bring in witnesses to state that. This is not true; she leaves them in her backyard (4 to 5 of them) without any human contact. The fight all day long with each other creating a pecking order and anytime someone from our family approaches the fence they charge it.

My I idea to counter her witnesses is to find documentation by a reputable source that explains what happens when dogs are left without human contact and create their own pack. Does anyone know of a book or article I can use as supporting evidence?

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Brian,
An easier way is to just you the power of a video recorder. Record the dogs in secret for several hours at a time. If you can get an unrestricted view of the dogs in the backyard, and there is as long as a time span as you're indicating with out any human contact for the dogs, you've helped make your case. Just film a six hour block for three or four days, and use that as evidence.
Hope you've got a two story house, or else you'll need to be putting up the recorder onto your own roof.

Did ya'll take a photo of the area that the dogs dug thru to get into the yard?

Do you have a copy of the police report and the animal control report from the attack?

And there are four or five pitbulls in the same yard, unrestrained except for a barrier fence that they've apparently breached already? Doesn't your area have any animal control ordinances?

Obviously, you'd better have a police report of the previous episode sbout the time that involved your GSD. If you didn't file a report that time, you have really weakened your own case if you intend to mention that incident.

There is plenty of info on this site.
* http://www.leerburg.com/954.htm
* http://www.leerburg.com/rot-kill.htm
* http://www.leerburg.com/kidbites.htm

Here is a recent case very similar to yours.
* http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/2672065/detail.html
* http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104564,00.html