EHT mom petitions for stricter laws after fatal dog attack

Amanda Frazier was looking for answers last week, after her 18-pound Maltese was fatally attacked by another dog during a walk with her teenage son through an Egg Harbor Township neighborhood.

Now, she's looking to make a change.

Frazier started a petition looking for stricter dog control laws and criminal accountability for owners.

Her family had Ameechi for nine years when her 17-year-old son took him for a walk through LaCosta Lakes last week, and another dog broke free from his leash and attacked.

“My son has hemiplegia cerebral palsy, so the left side of his body is weak, with spastic muscles,” Frazier told BreakingAC. “He was trying to fight off the 140-pound dog with one arm while (the man walking him) just stood there.”

The Egg Harbor Township Police Department's Human Law Enforcement officer is investigating, but it is unlikely that any criminal charges will come.

"This was not an accident," Frazier writes in the petition that had surpassed 400 signatures Wednesday morning. "It was a failure of judgment, a failure of protection, and a failure of law."

This was not the first incident with the larger dog.

The Anatolian shepherd, named Mitra, had issues before on Reed's Farm, where he was a livestock guardian dog.

He previously killed chickens on the farm, according to a video one worker recorded after Mitra went through training that she said led him to being "a completely different dog."

“We always knew Mitra had a sweet heart, just a little rambunctious and hard to bring him around people,” owner Cookie Till said in the video.

An Instagram post for the dogs of Reed's Farm includes a 2022 post about Mitra going away for "doggy boot camp."

Frazier says those posts prove the owners knew Mitra was a danger, and that the prior incidents were not reported.

“It was negligent that Cookie never reported this or any of the incidents that happened on her farm with the dog killing the animals,” Frazier told BreakingAC.

She also is concerned that Till’s post says the dog will be rehomed.

So, she's looking to change how things are handled.

"We demand: Criminal accountability for negligent dog owners and handlers whose decisions lead to injury, death, or endangerment of others," the petition authored by Frazier states.

The petition also mentions another local incident in which a dog fatally attacked other dogs in Ventnor.

A man whose name was not released was walking his four Pomeranians on North Richards Avenue around 7 p.m. Dec. 17, when a dog broke free from where he was tied up, and attacked, BreakingAC previously reported.

Two of the dogs did not survive. The other two were injured, along with minor injuries to the owner who was walking them, police said at the time.

"These events, while different, share a disturbing truth," Frazier writes. "Dangerous dogs are being brought into neighborhoods without safeguards, and when tragedy strikes, families are left to pick up the pieces with no justice, no accountability, and no systemic change."

The petition calls for:

• Stricter local and state laws regulating the movement and control of high-risk, large-breed, and working dogs in public or residential areas.
• Mandatory use of muzzles, leashes, and training protocols for livestock guardian breeds and other known-risk dogs when outside their designated work environment.
• Legal enforcement of liability when animals with known aggressive tendencies are allowed to roam or enter public spaces without proper precautions.
• Protective action from animal control, law enforcement, and local governments when animals pose a threat to pets and children in our communities.
• Support and legal recourse for families who have suffered due to dog attacks—not just grief, but justice.

Frazier also reached out to the governor, along with U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim.

CLICK HERE to see the petition.