A dog attack that ended in a shooting has led to pending civil lawsuit and has driven a wedge between two next door neighbors who reside in Turkey.

On May 21, the tension-filled dog dispute between the two neighbors came to a head when one of the dogs broke through two fences and attacked the other. What followed is a he said-she said account from both parties involved, including details on the $5,000 civil lawsuit.

A simple neighbor dispute or something more? You decide.

The Ellises

Turkey resident Ann Elise said she was mortified to see her neighbor’s over 100-pound dog in her backyard with her 12-pound, 9-year-old Pekingese in its mouth.

“It was very upsetting,” Elise said. “That dog is like one of my children. Her pitiful broke through a wooden fence and our chainlink fence to get to her. I watched in horror as he grabbed my dog by the neck and started shaking it like a rag doll.”

The neighbor she is referring to is Christy Billberry; the dog, Bilberry’s 2-year-old American Bulldog/Boxer mix named Bruno.

Ellis, who lives on New Hope Church Road just outside of Turkey, said another neighbor heard her screams and leapt to her dog’s rescue, wrestling her dog out of its attacker’s mouth and putting three bullets in Bruno’s head to keep it from charging again.

Ellis said she handed her neighbor a pistol and said “shoot him” because the animal was making a charge.

“My (other) neighbor was standing in her yard and was screaming ‘don’t shoot my dog.’” The dog, Ellis said, charged at her neighbor so, “he shot him.”

Despite the ordeal, both dogs lived.

For Ellis, the May 21 event was an unavoidable one, particularly since she had warned her neighbor since they brought the dog home that it was “aggressive.”

The neighbor, Ellis said, works with Sampson County Animal Control and has been bringing home dogs from the shelter for years. “We have put up with the barking and barking and would complain about it from time to time, but when this one was brought home, he was aggressive. Even though they have a wooden fence and we have a chainlink one, he would dig and try to get through it to get into our yard. In fact, he has broken the wooden fence several times, and I asked her about it, but she did nothing. At one point, she had about eight or nine dogs and 10 cats. She got rid of some, but right now she has about four other dogs and the one that got shot.”

Ellis said she has called the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office to complain over the years, but little could be done. “I talked to everyone about it, because we knew this would happen eventually,” she said. “It was just a matter of time.”

Ellis’ husband Tommy stands behind his wife’s assessment of the situation. “She told us that our dog is provoking hers,” said Tommy Ellis. “Imagine that, a 12-pound dog provoking a big dog like that ...”

The incident was so upsetting that the Ellises were in the Sheriff’s Office after being rejected by the magistrate on a request for a warrant against her neighbor for “damage to property.”

“He told me it was a civil issue and I could take her to court and sue her for money,” Ellis said. “I don’t want money; I want what is right. We found out that she told the vet that she was taking care of our dog’s medical bills, but it is the principle of the whole thing — this was going to happen and no one took the time to do anything about it because she is a county employee.”

Ellis also added that since her neighbor came into her yard right after the shooting took place, she could have asked for a trespassing warrant, but opted not to.

“She came into my yard and I told her to get out,” said Ann. “And she said she wouldn’t get out until she got her dog. I told her not to touch it until the law got out here, but she grabbed him anyway.”

In fact, the two sides will go to court later this month — the Ellises have filed a $5,000 civil suit against their neighbors.

Because her neighbor is a county employee, Ellis is certain that her battle is being made that much harder, especially after being denied the warrant by Magistrate A. Jackson.

“They aren’t doing anything, and they are not taking care of this because my neighbor is a county employee,” said Ellis. “I called the sheriff and talked to him about it and then he called Susan Holder (animal control manager) and said that I should give her a call, which I did, and she just brushed it off like it was nothing.”

When contacted, Holder didn’t hesitate to discuss the situation between Ellis and her employee, who is the Sampson County Animal Control’s shelter manager.

“She is the manager, but she works almost as a veterinary technician; she monitors the meds and does all the paperwork,” said Holder, who acknowledged that she was contacted by the sheriff, who told her about the Ellises concerns.

“I called her and spent a pretty good amount of time on the phone with Mrs. Ellis,” Holder said. “I looked back at my records and it was on April 14.”

The Billberrys

However, late last week, the neighbors, with permission from county officials, decided to tell their side of the story.

Christy and Kirk Billberry openly admit that their dog, Bruno, a 2-year-old American Bulldog/Boxer mix and not a pitbull as the Ellises alleged, was at fault for entering the Ellises yard, but insist that the incident did not happen exactly as it is being alleged, nor is their dog, they say, the vicious attacker it is called.

To drive the point home, Bruno was on hand during the entire interview and despite having three bullets, one which is still lodged in his head, his demeanor was that of a very calm and loving animal.

“He is not a pitbull,” said Christy Billberry, who works at Sampson County Animal Control. “But dogs are going to scuffle and bark at each other. I can’t predict anything that a dog is going to do. Dogs are going to get into scuffles all the time — this was just a very unfortunate incident.”

In fact, the Billberrys say they went out of their way to make sure their neighbors wouldn’t be bothered. They put a 6-foot wood fence up 12 inches from the Ellises chainlink fence to make sure there were no problems.

“I came home from work and I let my dog out to use the bathroom,” Billberry said. “I don’t like for him to be outside by himself because in the past, we had an incident where he had been shot (by a pellet gun). He still has a bullet lodged in his muscle in his back leg from it. I was outside with him and then I went back inside to get a drink. I heard the dogs barking and I looked out the window and saw Bruno at the fence. I ran outside and Ann’s dog was at the other side of the fence and they were barking at each other. Before I was on my back porch, he had hit the fence really hard and had gotten through (to Ann’s yard).”

Billberry said it was not her dog who broke her wooden privacy fence, it was her. “He just got through it — I couldn’t see over it when I got out there,” she said, “so I physically tore enough of it down where I could get through to get him. I tried to jump over it, but I couldn’t. I could hear her yelling that she was going to kill my dog.”

Frantic, Billberry said she began tearing her fence apart to get to Bruno.

“At the point I got there, her dog was on Bruno’s ear and he was shaking his head trying to get her dog off,” she said. “I made a hole big enough to where I could get through it. By the time I got to Bruno, he had gotten her dog loose from his ear and he had it in his mouth and was shaking it.”

However, once Billberry yelled for her dog, she said Bruno dropped the smaller animal instantly.

“When Ann came back outside the door, her neighbor ran over into her yard, picked Ann’s dog up and gave it back to her. Bruno was coming towards me with his head down and his tail between his legs because he knew he was in trouble.”

Right then Billberry said she told Mrs. Ellis to go and get her dog treated

“I immediately told her to get her to the vet, and I will take care of the vet bills,” she said. “She took her dog inside and I was trying to get Bruno picked up so I could get him through the fence and the hole to hand him to my (12-year-old) daughter. But I kept dropping him because I couldn’t get him over the chain link fence because he was so heavy.”

What happened next, Billberry said, was absolutely shocking.

“I had Bruno, and Ann came out of the house and handed Scott, her neighbor, the pistol and said to him, ‘kill that mother...’,” said Christy. “Bruno was standing there looking at him with his tongue hanging out, exhausted, because he had been in a scuffle with this dog and he was wagging his tail at him. Scott asked me if Bruno bites and I told him no, that he wasn’t people aggressive and really, he is not dog aggressive. These two dogs have been going at this for some time now. He had pointed the gun at him and I was going to grab him and pull him out of the way and as soon as I went to bend over to protect Bruno, Scott started firing.”

Billberry said both she and her daughter jumped back after the first shot.

“My daughter put her hands up and started screaming; the second shot splattered blood all over the back of her shirt and all over the back of her blue jeans,” Billberry said. “We were standing right next to Bruno and he just started shooting.”

“We know for a fact that the shots went down at an angle and exited out of the left side of his head,” said Kirk, who was at work at the time of the incident. “He was shot in the back of the head. On top of that, Scott was about two and a half foot from my wife and my child pointing a pistol.”

The neighbor was not charged in the incident, but like the Ellises, the Billberry’s are not backing down.

“I plan on taking this to the next level for sure,” said Kirk. “Yes sir. I am not going to stop. We have nothing to hide.”

“I took care of her bills — they are already paid,” said Christy. “One of Bruno’s canine teeth caught her neck when he shook her and she had some bruising. The vet told me that if he wanted to kill her, he would have immediately. If he meant to kill her, he would have never let go.”

“If a dog that big wants to keep something in his mouth, he is going to keep it there,” said Kirk. “Have you ever tried to take something out of dog’s mouth? Nine times out of 10, you can’t ...”

“If he (Scott) would have tried to take that dog out of his mouth, the dog would have been ripped to shreds,” said Christy. “When I yelled his name, Bruno dropped the dog because he knew he was in trouble.”

In the end, both neighbors are at a standstill.

“From my perspective, it is something, unfortunately, that we deal with from time to time,” Holder said. “... more often than I wish we did, but you will have neighbors who don’t agree on how animals should be confined or not confined. Both neighbors do have fences, and when I talked with Mrs. Ellis, I listened to her concerns and she indicated that her neighbor had been rude to her. I also listened to her complaints and I told her that I would speak to my employee and if there were any problems, I would reconcile them. I followed up with my employee, and it led me to believe that, at that time, it was more of a neighbor issue than a dog issue. It is not uncommon for dogs to bark at each other ... it happens.”

After the attack, late in the afternoon on May 21, Holder was made aware of the circumstances surrounding the incident.

“We have a procedure for what we would term dangerous dogs,” said Holder. “This does not reach that proportion — the dogs would have to have a history of being aggressive or violent to be considered dangerous. Dogs barking at other dogs does not escalate to the dog being called a dangerous dog.”

Holder said the incident was “unfortunate”.

“It really is,” she said. “When you have neighbors that have concerns like this that rise to this level. It doesn’t surprise me that dogs bark and try to reach other dogs through fences. I am very pleased that my employee stepped up and took responsibility.”

Although Holder reserved comment about the Ellises’ attempt to take out a warrant for her employee’s arrest, she did say that she understands some of the frustration.

“People get very emotional about their animals,” she said. “We love them like our children. I can understand that. And on the other side of that, my employee was also very attached to her animal as well ... It was just an unfortunate incident.”

The civil case is set for June 26. The Billberrys are currently receiving legal advice.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.