PROVIDENCE – Fourteen dogs ran loose in a parking lot of a Narragansett, R.I., shopping plaza on Wednesday, as a man and a woman were attempting to transport them from New York to Maine, according to the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Wayne M. Kezirian, president and general agent of the RISPCA, said in an interview Thursday the 14 Belgian Malinois were among 17 dogs the couple was traveling with between two vehicles. Nine of the 14 were ultimately voluntarily surrendered by the man and placed in the care of RISPCA and South Kingstown Animal Shelter, he said.
According to Kezirian, the man – who Kezirian did not identify as he was not charged with a crime – was driving the 14 dogs in a small SUV when he said they began fighting, and in order to break up the brawl, he pulled over into the Salt Pond Shopping Center on Point Judith Road.
RISPCA received a call from animal control to respond to the scene around 11 a.m., as officials were uncomfortable allowing the owner of the dogs to continue on the journey with such a large number of animals, Kezirian said.
When Kezirian arrived, he learned the 14 dogs had run amok in the shopping center, but the owner had been able to corral them back in his SUV by the time Kezirian got there, Kezirian said.
Seeing the vehicle stuffed like a “clown car,” Kezirian said the scene left him feeling like he was daydreaming.
“I felt like I was at a red light …. and someone behind me was repeatedly beeping the horn, because there were so many dogs in this car that they were repeatedly rubbing up against the horn button, and the horn in that car was going off constantly,” he said. “That’s how many of those dogs were in the car.”
Kezirian said it was reported that at least three dogs, when they were loose, entered the nearby Marshall’s and HomeGoods stores.
Cait Sincerny told WPRI she was shopping there with her 3-year-old son when she spotted them.
“It was chaotic at first,” she said. “Everyone was just shocked at what they were seeing.”
Belgian Malinois are “a breed that’s bred to be protective,” Kezirian said.
“It’s highly sought after, if you get the right dog, for police work,” he said. “They appear to be similar to, but a bit taller and lankier than most German Shepherds [and are] highly intelligent and very protective of the owner.”
A plan was ultimately devised to drive the dogs to a nearby ball field that was fenced and gated, so the owner could remove the dogs one by one, under the condition that several of them would be surrendered, according to Kezirian.
“When he opened the door to start taking the dogs out one at a time, the dogs rushed the door, and all 14 of the dogs escaped at one time,” Kezirian said.
In the fray, some dogs began attacking a younger one, he said.
“They were mauling that dog until one of the police officers from Narragansett …, went in – with great personal risk – and scooped that dog up,” Kezirian said.
The officer pepper-sprayed the attacking dogs, and turned over the injured one to the RISPCA, he said. According to Kezirian, the dog was severely injured and was in surgery until later Wednesday night, but is expected to survive.
RISPCA also took in two others, and the animal shelter took custody of six others, as per an arrangement negotiated with the owner, Kezirian said. The man was not criminally charged and was cooperative, he said.
Narragansett police and South Kingstown Animal Control did not immediately return requests for additional information on Thursday.
“The negotiated deal allowed the owner to keep five of them, and the reason I did that is that two of them were epileptic and would not have been adoptable,” Kezirian said. “Two of them were older and he was clearly attached to them and appeared to be in good enough condition, and one was a dog that I, from a practical perspective, couldn’t handle on site and he could.”
According to Kezirian, if dogs are not seized with an agreement and are part of a criminal case, they can be “in the system for months or years as the case proceeds through the court” before they can be put up for adoption.
“We make these difficult decisions in a lot of these instances so that we can take immediate ownership and we can deal with these dogs and place them more quickly for the benefit of the animal,” he said. “It’s always a difficult choice when we negotiate these but that’s the incentive for that agreement.”
Kezirian said the three dogs RISPCA took were all between nine and 12 months old and underweight, but otherwise are “relatively healthy.” The owner said he ran out of money and had been rationing their food during the trip, according to Kezirian.
However, Narragansett police officers “of their own accord, made sure that he had food in the car before he left,” he said.
Kezirian said RISPCA regularly sees cases involving hoarding tendencies, which he suspects was a factor in what happened in this instance. But he has never encountered anything quite like what happened on Wednesday, “with animals in a parking lot running free,” he said.
“When these dogs bolted out of that car, it was more than just looking like a clown car,” he said, describing when the dogs were let loose on the ball field. “They were just tumbling out of that car and chasing that other dog. It was a pretty ugly scene.”
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
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