BILLINGS — A Billings couple is speaking out after a dog attack near Rose Park, raising concerns about the incident itself and how long it took animal control to respond.
Watch the Crabtrees share their story:
Marlet Crabtree was sitting on her porch swing with her dog, Star, when a neighbor's dog approached Wednesday evening.
"She got up on the swing with me. She's always leashed at all times," Crabtree said.
The calm evening quickly turned chaotic.
"All of a sudden, before I took my eyes off it, it just saw Star and ran across the lawn and started nipping and biting and growling," Crabtree said. "I was trying to fend him off by kicking him. I couldn't. He just kept going at me and going at me and going at me. She was so scared."
Her screams drew a neighbor from across the street to help.
"It was really scary, you know, because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what I was going to do to get that dog to get away from me," Crabtree said.
Marlet Crabtree suffered mild cuts to her abdomen, and Star suffered a gash, but neither was seriously injured.
The Crabtrees called authorities immediately but did not hear back from animal control until the next morning — nearly 14 hours later.
"The responses we weren't happy (with) were the ones that (were) taking so many hours to respond or to even get a call back," Crabtree said.
"She called me and said she'd be here in so many minutes. And she said she was going to do it," Roger Crabtree said.
The couple says the delay raises bigger questions about public safety, especially if someone had been seriously hurt.
"My concern is someone really getting hurt badly and not being responded to quickly, you know," Crabtree said.
MTN reached out to Billings Animal Control multiple times Thursday to ask how after-hours response calls are handled and what threshold must be met for officers to respond overnight. The agency did not respond.
According to the Billings Animal Control website, office hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This summer, the city ended its contract with Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter, which raised questions about how animal-control officers would respond to reports of stray and dangerous animals. City officials told members of the public they likely would not be able to pick up strays because of the lack of manpower to care for them, but they did promise officers would respond to cases of dangerous animals.
The Crabtrees hope the incident leads to a review of how aggressive animal calls are handled in the city.
"We haven't been able to get any help until tomorrow, which is frustrating because, you know, it's a dog attack. It doesn't matter at any time we pay taxes in the city. Somebody should come," Crabtree said.
