I find this fascinating: "Stephens' friends have said the dogs were not capable of such a violent attack." This casual epistemology has worked out in my favor.

A couple of years ago my dog was accused of biting another and a police complaint was lodged. The complaint was quite horrific -- my violent, unleashed dog ran into the street to attack his leashed dog, dogs fighting, blood in the other dog's coat and on the owner... quite exciting. And an expensive vet bill was sent to me (though not included in the police complaint).

I got a call from the animal control officer. He had only one question: "was this <my dog's name>?" I said "yes" and he said "Then I'm closing the investigation." That was it -- he send me the report which said simply, "no violation, issue closed."

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I was relieved to be spared a complicated process of word against word. On the other hand, the police know my dog (he is kind of a fixture around town) which seems unfair.

BTW I was of course there too (as my dog is always with me :-) and observed 1> other dog was aggressive and it and its owner were on my property and 2> my dog made a very loud noise noise but was never within a meter of the other dog or owner (never more than a meter from me in fact), and 3> my dog returned to my side as soon as I called him. As in: all that happened is the dog did his job properly.

FWIW I don't have a PB but all the ones I've met have been super sweet.