The dog got the death penalty, but there will be no jail time for the owner of the dog that killed a 17-month-old boy in Moloa’a last year. Buenaventura Ednilao, whose mixedbreed dog attacked and killed Trusten Heart Liddle early
The dog got the death penalty, but there will be no jail time for the owner of the dog that killed a 17-month-old boy in Moloa’a last year.
Buenaventura Ednilao, whose mixedbreed dog attacked and killed Trusten Heart Liddle early in 2004, entered a no-contest plea to a dangerous-dog-prohibition charge, a petty misdemeanor which carries a maximum of 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Judge Trudy Senda, who called what happened an “extremely tragic set of circumstances,” sentenced Ednilao to six months probation and $605 in fines as per a sentencing recommendation by attorneys in the county prosecutor’s office, according to Ednilao’s attorney, Charles O’Neill.
Ednilao reportedly did not know ahead of time that the dog had a propensity for violence.
O’Neill told Senda his client had been cooperative, and that the dog in question, “Brownie,” had been euthanized, while four other dogs belonging to Ednilao were surrendered to officials with the Kauai Humane Society, and had either been adopted or put down.
Trusten Heart Liddle, son of Raven and Damon “Love” Liddle of Moloa’a, was killed by a basset hound/shepherd mix near his home in February, 2004.
According to the Liddle family’s lawyer, Susan Marshall, the dog was kept on a 22-foot-long chain, and “the chain was long enough to allow the dog to create its own ‘territory’ on the Liddle property.”
The boy was mauled by the most dangerous of dogs, regardless of breed: an un-neutered male on a chain, said Dr. Rebecca “Becky” Rhoades, executive director of the Kauai Humane Society.
“There is a serious need for new laws that hold animal owners criminally responsible for the actions of their dogs,” Marshall said shortly after the incident.
“Dog owners who fail to prevent their dogs from attacking people must be charged with a crime with substantial penalties,” she said.
Rhoades said that there are roughly an average of five or six prosecutions a year for dangerous-dog violations on Kaua’i, since a county ordinance was created in October, 2002.
