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February 13, 2025, was just a normal day for Jenny the dog and her human, Alice Baker.
Baker took Jenny outside on a leash to do one of her favorite things – walk to the mailbox to retrieve the day’s mail. But this February day would be anything but normal, for lurking nearby were two pit bulls that had gotten loose and trekked across town. The animals attacked Jenny, which resulted in her death.
Baker intervened to try to help Jenny and was also hurt in the attack.
The Ulysses City Council heard Jenny’s story at its March 26 meeting as Ulysses Police Chief Ron Vagher and Animal Control Officer Anne Langston brought a proposal to strengthen the city’s “Animal at Large” ordinance before the council with the hope of avoiding any more senseless attacks and encouraging more responsible animal ownership by increasing penalties.
“The brown dog started across the street, and I tried to get my dog back to the house,” Baker told the packed council chamber. “But the male dog nailed her to the ground and wouldn’t let up.
“I can still hear her crying.”
Baker called the police and said Animal Control Officer Anne Langston responded immediately with officer Brown.
“Anne picked her up and said she still had a heartbeat, we’re going to take her to the vet,” Baker said. “The damage was too bad; she had to be put down.”
Jenny loved to walk to the mailbox.
“She didn’t know the difference between Sunday and a holiday, so we would walk to the mailbox, and she was happy,” Baker said. “But she died a horrible death. Those dogs would not let up on her.
“I have nightmares. I took rabies shots because they were not vaccinated.”
The incident with Mrs. Baker’s dog was not the first one that week involving the same animals.
“What really kind of spurred it along was we had two incidents within three days,” said Ulysses Police Chief Ron Vagher. “On Feb. 10, we had two animals get away from their residence, go down the street, attack another dog that was on its property. Just ended up with minor injuries there, that one got separated fairly quick.”
Jenny wasn’t so lucky three days later.
“For the first incident, the owners were issued citations through municipal court, which they have appeared on and were found guilty of,” Vagher said. “The second incident, Sgt. Brown and officer Langston prepared a case which has been submitted to the Grant County Attorney’s office and that’s where it’s at now.”
At-Large Animal reports on the rise in Ulysses
According to Vagher, the city had 14 animal bite cases in 2023, 15 in 2024, and as of March, five have been reported in 2025.
In 2024, eight of those reports were canine vs. human, one was cat vs. human, five were dog vs. animal, and one was cat vs. animal.
“Out of those attacks, there resulted in two deaths of canines and one death of a cat,” Vagher said. “In 2025 thus far, we’ve got the one dog vs. human, zero with cats vs. human, dog vs. animal we have four, cat vs. animal zero, dog deaths one, and cat deaths five.”
The Ulysses police have investigated 34 animal bites over a 3-year period. In 2023 the police issued 68 citations for animals at large with four citations issued for vicious animal, a number that rose to 110 citations issued for at-large and 15 for vicious animals in 2024. So far in 2025, nine citations have been issued for at-large animal and four citations for vicious animal.
“The ordinance that we propose gives us the opportunity to maybe enforce with some stricter penalties when it comes to things like this,” Vagher said. “That’s just some of the numbers that we came up with regarding as to why we, as the enforcing side of it would like to see stiffer penalties for these violations.”
City attorney Lynn Koehn said the updated ordinance gives law enforcement the ability, when it deals with a vicious dog, to potentially get it deemed to be a dangerous animal.
“Then when that mechanism occurs, the judge that’s sitting here can have the authority, depending on the circumstances of the case, to order the dog to be euthanized,” Koehn said. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do to prevent an initial encounter, which is just the way the law works. You can’t charge people because they may commit a crime tomorrow.
“But it does give law enforcement, and myself, and the judge, the ability if we have a case where a dog bites another dog now it’s going to be deemed to be a dangerous animal.”
The judge can then make the determination whether to either release the animal with a warning to the owner that if it’s deemed dangerous and gets out again, the city can seize it have it euthanized.
“We hope this kind of language will help deter this type of future behavior,” Koehn added. “I’m a firm believer in the owner is the person responsible for these dogs. Unfortunately, when we get to this point, this is the only avenue that we have is to have a dog put down when it acts aggressive, and this gives us the ability to do that.”
Baker asked Vagher why the dogs are still alive, and he responded that the dogs are considered evidence.
“We have them in our facility, they’re quarantined,” Vagher added. “They’re not near town, but we’re waiting to see what happens with the court.”
City Administrator Luke Grimes said the fines have doubled and tripled for irresponsible dog ownership.
“My hope is that this will become less likely to happen as it gets really freakin’ expensive to be a bad dog owner,” Grimes said.
Council president Ken Warner noted that the owners of repeat offender dogs could be cited for misdemeanor amounts of money.
“Maybe by getting on top of it quicker and sooner and for amounts, we can deter that type of action,” Warner said.
The amended Ordinance 1347 increases running at-large fines beginning at $100 for the first offense, increasing by $100 for each subsequent offense up to a maximum of $1,000. The impound fee is $60 plus $10 per day for care and feeding, and the fine for harboring an animal deemed to be aggressive is $400. Fines for an animal deemed to be dangerous is $500 for the first offense, increasing by $200 with each subsequent offense.
Unless a specific penalty is provided in a section is provided, the penalty for violation of any section of this article shall be a fine of up to $500 and a jail time of up to 60 days or any combination of the same.
Ordinance 1347 takes effect upon publication in The Ulysses News, see page 13.
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