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Friday night my wife and I spotted two pit bulls running loose in our neighborhood. Concerned, I called the Albert Lea Police Department to have them captured and removed from the street. The response was less than I would have expected. I was told that the Police Department isn’t equipped to function as a dog catcher and that there wasn’t really anything they could do unless there was a violent incident.

That incident came the next day, Saturday: Halloween. The small dog of a neighbor was mauled and killed by pit bulls that were followed home to a residence that was known to the police. This was Halloween, and the victim could just as easily have been a child.

The fact that the dogs were still running loose in the same neighborhood where I reported them is so troubling that I felt compelled to write this letter. Was this not considered a public safety issue on the eve of trick-or-treating, when the streets could be expected to be populated with small children? How could these dogs have still been running loose in the neighborhood 24 hours later? Was there even an attempt to find them?

Albert Lea dodged a bullet this time. I don’t know what more a citizen is supposed to do to avoid tragedies like this. A report was made and was not followed up on with the diligence it obviously required. Please do better in the future.

Todd Coughlin

Albert Lea