KNOXVILLE (WATE) - The owner of two pit bulls is apologizing after a weekend attack that left several other dogs and three people injured.
The dogs jumped the fence at their W. Baxter Ave. home to go after several animals on Iredell Ave. near Boyd Street.
"I do feel bad, I do, because it is a tragedy that it has happened. But it's not something I could say is the nature of those dogs," said their owner Tasha Wallace.
She said she usually kept her two pit bulls, Diamond and Reverse, chained in the backyard because they could jump the fence. But she would take them off the chain for meals when she could watch them.
"We do this every time we feed them. It had not been a problem. But there was just one second where I came in to get something and came back out. By that time they had got over the fence. It just happened so quick," she said.
Wallace said her dogs were going after other dogs, not people.
"The people were trying to break it up and that's how they got bit. Nobody just was attacked," she said.
She said Diamond and Reverse had escaped in the past, but nothing like this had happened.
"They've gotten loose before and they've even chased other animals, but they've not attacked or tried to hurt anybody or anything or any other animal," she said.
Wallace knows her dogs will probably be euthanized. She said she can't afford the fight to keep them.
"I would love for them to be somewhere and not killed, but that's how any pet owner feels," she said.
She said it's been hard to explain to her children, ages 11 and 6.
"They were so upset during the whole thing. My son was in tears crying and I was just holding him," she said.
Wallace was cited because the dogs got out and weren't wearing tags. She said they are up to date on their shots, but the tags got lost when she moved last fall.
