Locals react after 15-year-old girl is killed in Saline County dog attack
The girl was killed at a residence near the intersection of Barth and White Oak Streets, a home neighbors say had long been the subject of complaints and concerns.
Saline County authorities investigating after 15-year-old girl killed in dog attack
According to the Saline County Sheriff's Office, which arrived on scene around 12:15 pm, the girl, whose name has not been released, was helping feed and care for the dogs, who were being housed at the location as part of a rescue.' Something she had reportedly done often, when she was attacked in the front yard.
The Saline County Sheriff's Office confirmed the animals involved in the attack have been seized with the help of Benton Animal Control.
The neighborhood, already wary of the dogs, is now mourning what many describe as a preventable death.
Residents say complaints about the animals, which included numerous mixed-breed dogs, date back months, if not years.
'These dogs were very vicious at the fence to the point that people didn't want to let their children walk to and from the bus stop,' said neighbor Heidi Clay. 'They looked hungry, full of fleas, malnourished. This is by far not a dog rescue.'
Mother of 6-month-old girl killed in dog attack calls it a horrible but avoidable accident
Clay, whose father lives nearby, described the property as a dog-hoarding situation, not a legitimate rescue operation. She also stated that the girl and her mother had been given permission to help care for the animals.
'This beautiful young girl lost her life because these people do not properly take care of their dogs,' Clay said. 'She wasn't trespassing. She was trying to help.'
Neighbor Ralph Murphy said he returned home to find deputies on scene and described a chilling scene as authorities worked to secure the property.
'The sheriff's deputy came up to the fence and a whole bunch of dogs ran up to him. He fired two warning shots into the ground,' Murphy said. 'Then he walked about ten feet onto the property, shook his head and walked back out. I looked and saw a body on the ground.'
Murphy, like Clay, says the community had repeatedly raised concerns with law enforcement about the aggressiveness of what he called 'the unrestrained dogs.'
'Saline County said there was nothing they could do. But it's clear there was something they could do, they're doing it now,' Murphy said. 'It's a shame that some tragedy has to happen before our government responds.'
Residents estimate the number of dogs on the property may have exceeded 40, including puppies. Some neighbors said law enforcement had previously told them to shoot the dogs if they came onto private property. Saline County does not have a countywide animal control department.
Little Rock woman severely injured after Fourth of July dog attack
At this time, there has been no confirmation on whether the owners of the dogs will face criminal charges. Neighbors say they've reported past incidents of the dogs attacking other pets and threatening people in the area.
'Too little, too late?' Clay asked. 'Yes. She's gone. Someone should have stepped up and done something. It's unacceptable how this little girl lost her life.'
The Saline County Sheriff's Office has not released further details pending an ongoing investigation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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4-minute read Letitia James, the New York attorney general, is going to need to 'lawyer up.' So will Adam Schiff, the California senator, and Jack Smith, the former Justice Department official who investigated President Donald Trump's complicity in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. There's a good chance former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, whom Trump has flippantly accused of treason, also may need to. And here is a name that may surprise you: Gov. Phil Murphy. He's already ahead of them all. The governor, as Politico New Jersey reported last week, retained two top-shelf lawyers — Parimal Garg, his former chief counsel, and Chris Porrino, who served as a state attorney general for former Gov. Chris Christie — after Murphy was served with a subpoena as part of an investigation into New Jersey's 'sanctuary state' immigration policies. Both lawyers work at the Roseland-based Lowenstein Sandler firm and will be paid $450 an hour, the report said. 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He authorized a military takeover of the Washington, DC, police department on Monday, vowing to wipe the nation's capital of crime and homelessness — despite a drop in crime rates in the city. He has hinted that he may deploy more federal troops to Democratic-controlled cities. Crime fighting doesn't seem to be his purpose in Newark. He's digging in his heels in support of Habba out of anger at being rebuffed by federal court judges. He feels his prerogative of picking his own people has been once again thwarted by unelected judges. His prerogative just ran smack into long-established institutional guardrails. And as always when he runs into guardrails or norms, he seeks to ignore them or blow them up. Opinion: Ciattarelli breaks with the president on immigration — but in a Trumpian way Habba is simply not qualified One clear reason Habba has collided with those guardrails is that she is clearly not suited for the job. The United States attorney for New Jersey is a powerful and prestigious job that was held by a long roster of venerable prosecutors: Frederick B. Lacy in the late 1960s, the first in a series of important mob-busting prosecutors, like Jonathan Goldstein, a Nixon appointee in the mid-1970s, and Robert Del Tufo until 1980. Chris Christie, who had no courtroom experience before being approved for the post in 2002, was widely accused of targeting mostly Democrats, but there was at least a focus on rooting out political corruption, and he parlayed that record into the governor's office. Regardless of his motives, he put the political class on notice. Alina Habba? Is she the best that Trump can do for a state that where he raised and later bankrupted his casino empire and where he retreats from the Florida heat? Or is New Jersey not really a front in his purported War on Crime but just another battleground in his war on institutional power? Email: stile@
