LaToya Brinson calls it outrageous. Her daughter’s dog got loose in the Chicago suburb of Dolton, and she got a $2,500 ticket.
It happened on July 6. Chloe, a laidback, 3-year-old American Pitbull, somehow got out of Brinson’s backyard, possibly by pushing through a gate.
Chloe belongs to Brinson’s daughter, who’s in the military.
When the dog got out, Dolton police showed up and called Brinson at work.
“She said we got a call about a stray dog, and we got over here – and I saw your dog and I shot at the dog,” Brinson recalled.
Chloe wasn’t hit by the bullet and ran off. Brinson said she found the dog four days later, but the real shocker came when she read the ticket left in her mailbox.
“My ticket was $2,500 for a dog on the loose,” she said. “I could not believe it. How you come up with this? That is half my taxes.”
Brinson said she looked for information about fines for loose dogs on the village of Dolton’s website but found nothing. Dolton doesn’t have animal control officers.
“Nothing on the website … nothing about animals – just [Mayor] Tiffany [Henyard],” Brinson said. “I am not taking away from my accountability, but $2,500 is obscene.”
Depending where you live, fines for loose dogs range from $300 in Chicago to $50 in Blue island and $100 in Oak Park and Riverdale.
“How do you get a $2,500 [ticket] for a dog on the loose in Dolton?”
Attorney Cherie Travis called Brinson’s fine excessive and arbitrary.
“I think she should get a small ticket consistent with other towns,” Travis said. “There is no evidence that the dog harmed a person or another animal.”
Travis, the co-founder of the Animal Law Student Initiative, said the group would like the village to hire a part-time animal control officer and additional training for officers.
“We would really like to see some policy changes, to see officers trained,” she said. “It is inappropriate for officers to shoot at a dog when it is near people.”
Brinson has asked for the bodycam footage from that day. Her next court date is Oct. 17. NBC Chicago reached out to the mayor’s office but did not hear back.