Brief by Central Staff
Animals – December 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
We were talking to a friend in Leadville a couple of weeks ago, when she interrupted herself: “Oh no, a TV satellite truck just pulled up in front of the courthouse. What is it this time?”
Leadville has been getting a lot of dog-related publicity lately, none of it good, and this was another segment. First there was the deputy sheriff who took a dog to the dump and shot it, but failed to kill it.
This time around, it was 21 pit bulls on a 5-acre plot south of town, where the dogs began arriving last February. Owner Ruben Pacheco had them chained to trees, and there were dog houses.
The news show fretted about whether the animals were cold living outside in Leadville, and they did look rather battle-scarred on television, with the most photogenic animal sporting a mostly missing ear. But the state Bureau of Animal Protection said they were well-fed and active, and did not appear to be neglected or poorly treated, according to District Attorney Mike Goodbee.
Nonetheless, they weren’t good neighbors, said Cindi Gillespie, who lives next to Pacheco’s property. She said she was attacked twice by loose dogs, and they often barked enough to disturb her sleep.
Pacheco has a criminal record, but said he did not raise the dogs for fighting, and Lake County Sheriff Ed Holte said there was no evidence of such criminal activity.
At last report, Pacheco had taken some of the dogs to Pueblo. Pacheco has been issued two summonses by Sheriff Holte, for dog-at-large and vicious-dog-at-large. Goodbee, the prosecuting attorney, has requested that the state Department of Agriculture, which regulates dog breeding, cite Pacheco on several grounds related to the improper operation of a pet facility.
As for the effects of this publicity, the Herald-Democrat has published quite a few letters berating Pacheco and county officials, including one from a California woman who stated that “I visit the state frequently. I plan to boycott the state of Colorado until these dogs are humanely removed from these inhumane, deplorable conditions.”