Greece, N.Y. -- Jim Watt lives in a neighborhood filled with dog walkers.
Even though he is facing criminal charges in an incident from last week, he is talking about what happened in order to accept full responsibility.
“I never expected this. There’s no excuses (sic) to be made.”
Jim Watt says his dogs were more than just his pets. They were a part of his family.
Now the three of them, Buddy and Mama, and their offspring a female named Trouble, are being held by animal control officers waiting to be destroyed.
Standing in the front yard of his home on Tait Avenue Jim is still trying to make sense of what happened.
“They broke through my gate right here and they just went crazy,” he says shaking his head.
The dogs, pit bull mixes, attacked a greyhound named Dasher. Nancy Kliss regularly walked her two greyhounds in this neighborhood as she did that day.
“I heard Nancy yelling my name and I just dropped everything I was doing,” says Watt. “I ran straight in the middle of it.”
“I was punching my dogs and kicking and trying to break it up,” he adds.
Another neighbor who tried to help says the grip the dogs had on Dasher was relentless.
“It was just so viscious. When I got there all three pit bulls were locked onto different parts of Dasher,” says Eric Egan.
“I was beating my dogs with a baseball bat trying to get them off,” says the owner of the pit bulls.
Dasher did not recover from his injuries. Another greyhound named Vixen was also injured. Their owner Nancy Kliss suffered severe injuries to her arm.
Animal control officers in Greece continue to investigate and say criminal charges are likely to be filed but there is no time frame for that to happen. The three pit bulls will likely be destroyed within a week.
Jim Watt spent 26 hours in emergency care for puncture wounds to his hands. He will need further surgery on the nerves. But he wants to make one thing perfectly clear.
“I wanted to send out a public apology. There was no excuse,” he says, adding, “to Nancy and her family- God Bless you.”
