Woman Finds Friendly Pitbull In Her Northern Greene County Yard

Its been eight months since the city of Springfield passed a new ordinance requiring all pit bulls to be registered.

The move has pushed dozens of owners to abandon their pets outside of the city, sometimes in Greene County.

Its a growing problem for Springfield Animal Control Officers, who say the number of calls for roaming dogs have increased.

Those pets include pitbulls just like this one, which was found earlier today.

Kathy Haynes is a resident of rural Greene County.

She was running errands today and when she returned to her home she found a pitbull.

Haynes, says she's terrified of all kinds of dogs, so the pitbull caused her to stay in her vehicle.

Her husband is out of town and her neighbors were not at home to help her.

So, Haynes called OnStar for assistance, but was told animal control does not travel to her area of the county.

She then dialed Fair Grove Police and still got no assistance.

Kathy Haynes says, "its extremely frustrating, I know with down there in Springfield, I think they made some new rules and ordinances where you're not even allowed to have pitbulls unless you spay and neuter them and I think you're suppose to microchip them with everything else and this guy doesn't seem to have any identification with him what's so ever and I can't believe I can't get any assistance."

Haynes believes the dog is abandonded since she has never seen the animal in the neighborhood.

She also says its too far in the county for the dog to have wandered away from the city on its own.

We spoke with Springfield Animal Control tonight, officers say they're are busy with calls of roaming dogs especially pitbulls. Many of these pitbulls are being dumped here in the county after new pitbull laws took effect in the city of Springfield.

Travis Maddox of Springfield Animal Control says, "its very dangerous for someone to just dump their dog whether its in the city or in the county. They can also spread disease and that's why we take it very seriously."

Officer Maddox says Animal Control works very hard to help owners register their pets.

There's a $50 dollar fee to have dogs spayed or neutered.

Animals also need to have their current rabbies vaccanation and be micro chipped.

Animal Control officers say people can call the Sheriff's Department for help.

However, if animal control does come out they can pick up an animal if it's on public property.

Otherwise an owner would have to be present to sign the dog over to Animal Control officers.