LANSING — A Port Huron woman is rejoicing after a Michigan appeals court granted her pet bulldog a reprieve from a death sentence.
The pet, an 80-pound American bulldog named Chance, bit off part of the nose of a house guest in 2024.
The Port Huron Police Department investigated and the agency's animal control officer, Brian Roskey, told the district court Chance should be put down as a dangerous animal, court records show. The court agreed.
But the dog's owner, Pamela Wickings, said there was more to the story. Chance, she said, deserved another chance, because he was provoked.
And in an Aug. 13 ruling, the Michigan Court of Appeals revoked Chance's death sentence.
Wickings "is thrilled with the court's ruling and looking forward to having her dog
back," her Birmingham attorney, Celeste Dunn, told the Detroit Free Press Aug. 14.
The house guest, after noticing Chance was close to one of her shoes, admitted that just before Chance bit her, she "got down on the floor, put her face within less than six inches of Chance's face, and sternly scolded him in a loud voice," according to a summary of the facts included with the Michigan Court of Appeals opinion.
Wickings' boyfriend and her granddaughter, who both witnessed the incident, testified at an earlier hearing that the guest was also waving a shoe as she scolded Chance, in a way that suggested she might hit the dog, who was three years old at the time.
The house guest, who is not a party to the case and is not identified in the Court of Appeals opinion, admitted she provoked the dog and "got into Chance's face" with a shoe in her hand, but denied waving the shoe before he snapped at her once and bit her on the nose, according to the case summary.
Wickings appealed the district court ruling to the St. Clair County Circuit Court, which upheld the lower court ruling, and then to the Michigan Court of Appeals.
There, the three-judge panel sent the case back to the district court after reversing the court's order that Chance be euthanized.
If Chance was provoked, the panel said, then he is not a dangerous animal, and the district court "should have applied a wholly objective standard in determining whether the guest's actions constituted provocation."
Taylor Roggenbuck, the Port Huron attorney representing Roskey, who had petitioned to have the dog euthanized, said in an Aug. 14 email she believes the case was decided correctly at the district court and circuit court level. Now that the case has been sent back to the district court, "our intent is to request the same decision utilizing the guidance offered by the Court of Appeals," Roggenbuck said.
Dunn, who specializes in animal cases, said she is pleased with the ruling and hopes that Chance, who under a court order has been kept at a kennel at Wickings' expense for more than two years, can soon be home with his owner.
Even Roskey, the animal control officer, testified that he "would not recommend" putting your face in the face of a dog that does not belong to you, according to the case summary.
"If this wasn't provocation, what is?" asked Dunn, who said the woman who got bit was not permanently disfigured.
"Dogs are dogs," Dunn said. "They're not supposed to act perfectly. That's part of why we love them."
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Court revokes death sentence for Port Huron dog who bit house guest
