Owners Picket Pound for Pup in Prison

ORANGE —  He may be in puppy prison, but he’s still got family and friends.

About 10 of them picketed the Orange County Animal Shelter on Saturday, calling for the release of Beijing Blue, a chowchow facing a hearing for biting two people in less than a month.

Armed with placards stenciled with the words “Free Beijing” and “Your Dog Could Be Next,” the Laguna Hills couple who own the imprisoned animal marched along with several neighbors and friends in front of the county shelter in Orange for about three hours.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Chris Chrestay, who with her husband, Mark, owns the dog. “They have sentenced our dog to death. He’s not an aggressive dog. They’re playing games with us.”

Workers at the shelter declined to comment on the pickets or the dog’s case, but said Beijing Blue remained penned up inside throughout the three-hour protest.

Lt. Eric Stavenhagen of the county animal shelter said he does not know when a hearing on the dog’s case will be held, but noted that a death sentence is not always the result of such cases. Some dogs are released to their owners with requirements that the animal be strictly restrained and placed in a muzzle when in public, he said.

Beijing Blue was seized by animal control officials in early September after two separate biting incidents were reported involving the dog.

In August, the chowchow bit a neighbor while the woman was attempting to break up a fight between Beijing Blue and her own dog. A few weeks later, Beijing Blue bit an 11-year-old neighborhood girl who was visiting the Chrestays. The attack came when the girl’s own dog was trying to force its way onto the couple’s property, Chris Chrestay said.

Although the girl’s wounds did not require stitches, a doctor who treated the child reported the episode to county animal control officials as required by law, according to the Chrestays.

“It was an unfortunate accident,” Chris Chrestay said. “But the girl’s family does not want the dog to be held. The family wants Beijing to come home to us.”

Animal control officials, however, investigated the biting incidents on Sept. 10 and decided to impound the dog, citing the county’s vicious animals ordinance, which gives them authority to destroy dogs involved in repeated or particularly violent attacks.

Beijing Blue has remained incarcerated in the Orange County Animal Shelter ever since, while his owners have waged a spirited defense in hopes of legally springing him from his pen.

The couple has hired an attorney to press the dog’s case and a behavioral scientist to produce a canine psychological profile, which shows Beijing Blue to be a basically non-aggressive pet. So far, the Chrestays have spent $6,000 to fight for the return of their pet, they say.

“This all is very painful to us,” Chris Chrestay said. “This dog is not a dog to us. He’s a member of our family. We want him home with us. If they want restrictions on us, fine. We’ll abide by that.”

Chrestay said she was told a hearing to determine the dog’s fate may be held Nov. 14 before an arbitrator. If the ruling goes against Beijing Blue, the couple’s attorney will file for an injunction in Superior Court to block any action against the dog, she said.

“A lot of people don’t realize that they have a recourse they can take,” she said. “I’ve had several people call me to say they’ve had this same thing happen to them.”

She doesn’t understand why animal control officials will not relent, but suspects they have a predisposed bias against chowchows.

“We’re very careful with him,” Chris Chrestay said. “We love him. But they won’t give us our dog back. They’re just bent on killing him.”