CITY WINS CASE AGAINST DOG OWNER INVOLVED IN RECENT ATTACK

In the second case in less than a month, City Prosecutors
prevailed Friday in a case involving a dog attack on a local resident.
Following the unprovoked attack resulting in significant injuries, the
City Prosecutor's Office has worked to have the animal surrendered to
Animal Care and Control and fined the owner.

On August 24, 2009, a male pit bull belonging to Mr. Lucion Obanion
jumped a fence at his residence and attacked an individual walking
outside. The victim suffered injuries including lacerations requiring
approximately 10 stitches to her arm and aggravation of a previous
rotator cuff injury to her shoulder. Mr. Obanion was not home when the
incident occurred.

Mr. Obanion was issued citations for violations regarding owner
responsibility for an unprovoked attack by an animal. After a trial on
October 16, 2009, he was ordered by the Court to surrender the dog to
the City and also pay a fine of $600 for these violations.

"Residents of Indianapolis need to know that they will be held
responsible for dogs that cause unprovoked injury to individuals on or
off the owner's property," said Corporation Counsel Chris Cotterill.
"Not only have we permanently removed another dangerous dog from the
community, but the large fine should serve as notice that there are
serious consequences for not properly confining and restraining your
animals."

Effective prosecution of claims against those who allow their animals to
harm other people is just one area of focus by the Ballard
Administration to ensure that animals do not harm people. Calls about
animals are among the top categories of calls to the Mayor's Action
Center, and the Mayor's administration is focused on improving the
City's effectiveness in this area.

The Office of City Prosecutor is a division of the Office of Corporation
Counsel and prosecuted over 2,000 cases for violations involving animals
in 2008 while eliminating a backlog of more than 800 cases involving
condition or use of property from 2007. Today, the City Prosecutor
promptly prosecutes all city ordinance violations.