Neighbors say they complained about pack of attacking dogs

King County Animal Care and Control failed to respond to multiple warnings about the dogs involved in Saturday's fatal attack in Maple Valley on two mares, according to neighbors who filed complaints with the agency.

Five dogs — four of them pit-bull mixes, one a Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix — were euthanized Sunday after they attacked the two mares, Kat and Kiara, Saturday afternoon. The mares were defending their foals from the dogs at Serenity Equine Rescue & Rehabilitation, a nonprofit ranch.

During the attack, one horse ran from the dogs through a barbed-wire fence, according to Animal Control's report. Both mares were euthanized because of their injuries. The foals were bitten on their legs but survived.

Officials are still investigating the incident and the dogs' owner, said King County spokeswoman Christine Lange. The dogs were unlicensed, were not spayed or neutered and not trained, she said. Officers also found seven pit-bull-mix puppies that the owner promised to send to relatives outside King County, she said.

Calls to the owner have not been returned.

The ranch's founder, Patricia Clark, and neighbors said Animal Control could have prevented the incident had it responded to earlier complaints. Clark complained twice to the agency in July.

One neighbor told officers Saturday that she'd been surrounded by the dogs at her mailbox in August and had filed a complaint then, stating she "was fearful of a full-on mauling."

That neighbor and another both said in interviews they had complained to the agency about the dogs within the past three months but didn't get a response from Animal Control.

"It's not like they haven't had a lot of warning, so I think that's pretty irresponsible," Clark said of the agency.

Lange, the King County spokeswoman, said the agency expects dog owners to be responsible for their pets and does respond quickly to attacks in progress in its service area of 32 cities and unincorporated King County. Sheriff's deputies responded to the ranch within about 15 minutes, and Animal Control officers were on the scene in about 40 minutes, according to officials.

"When dogs are vicious and are currently attacking, we are there quickly," Lange said. "When dogs are just loose ... that may not be a Priority 1 case."

Animal Control records show it received a complaint from Clark on July 22 about two separate incidents in which the dogs chased her or her horses.

"My fear is that these dogs are going to get loose and kill some of the animals on my farm," Clark wrote in her complaint.

Clark said she e-mailed a second complaint July 31, after two more incidents in which the dogs tried to attack her horses and her. Lange said the agency hadn't located a copy of that complaint.

Neighbor Scott Kling said he phoned Animal Control about three months ago about the dogs, shortly after they starting running loose in the neighborhood.

"When you call, you get a recording," Kling said. "You really get nothing done. This could have been you or me or anyone else that these dogs went after. It just happened to be the horses."

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com.

Seattle Times researcher David Turim contributed.