Kinston man attacked by neighbor's dog

More than a week ago, Lamb H. Clemmons, 69, was taking trash to his truck when his neighbor's pit bull attacked and bit him in the face.

Nine days later, the scars - and anger - remain.

Clemmons, known as "L.H." to his friends and neighbors, still has deep red scars and more than 30 stitches from the encounter at his home with his next-door neighbor's dog, Max, at 1751 Crestwood Drive.

"I was loading up my truck with bags of trash," Clemmons said. "I was walking back to the house, and I noticed that two of my neighbor's dogs had gotten loose from their chains."

Clemmons said the dogs watched him as he walked back to his house, but before reaching the door, they attacked. The force of the attack caused him to fall against a brick wall before he was able to get back inside of his home.

The dog's owner, Clemmons' next-door neighbor Walter Peyton, 24, said his dogs were chained behind a fence.

"I don't know how, but they got loose," Peyton said.

Peyton doesn't believe his dog attacked Clemmons without cause.

"I don't think L.H. did anything that night to anger the dogs," Peyton said. "But I do think some things that L.H. has done in the past may have caused the dogs to attack him."

Clemmons said that - as far as he knows - no one in his family has shot at Peyton's dogs, outside of a situation a decade ago in which Clemmons shot at a dog on his property with a BB gun.

"About 10 years ago, one of his dogs got into my backyard," Clemmons said. "I couldn't get him to leave, so I shot the dog in the (rear) with a BB gun and he jumped back over the fence.

The Clemmons and Peyton families have lived amicably next door to each other for nearly 40 years.

Clemmons says that while the Peyton's have been good neighbors, their dogs had started to become a nuisance.

"I couldn't go out to my storage building in the back yard without Max charging at the fence and barking at me," Clemmons said.

Peyton said Clemmons and his grandson had done things to antagonize his dogs.

"I've seen L.H.'s grandson shooting at my dogs with a BB gun," Peyton said.

Peyton said Clemmons' English Bulldog, Bojangles, would bark and growl at his dogs.

"Bojangles is a good dog and so are my dogs," Peyton said. "Any time dogs live next to each other they're going to rile each other up."

Peyton said Max is his 3-year-old son's dog.

"Max lays down and plays with my son," Peyton said. "If I thought Max had attacked anyone without being provoked, I would put him down myself."

Joey Huff of the Lenoir County Health Department, which oversees Lenoir County Animal Control, said that while some people are calling for the dog to be put down, legally, it is not possible.

"According to NC Statute 67-4.1 and 4.2, we can order Mr. Peyton to keep his dog confined to his home or to an enclosed and locked pen, or in another structure designed to confine it," Huff said.

Peyton will not be allowed to let Max leave his property unless he is securely leashed and muzzled.

"Mr. Peyton's dog is now classified as a dangerous dog," Huff said. "Failing to comply with these restrictions is a criminal misdemeanor."

Huff said that any legal recourse on Clemmons' part would have to be settled as a civil matter in court.

"The dog is being held at the SPCA for 10 days of observation, which is standard procedure when a dog bites someone," Huff said.

Huff said that an animal complaint was filed against one of Walter Peyton's dogs in 2005.

"The complaint from 2005 was not (against) Max," Peyton said. "In that case, a 4-month-old puppy dug out from under our fence and chewed up a neighbor's yard light."

Peyton is in the process of moving into a new house across town which will have a 6-foot high fence to contain his dogs, which, along with Max, include two other pit bulls and several hunting dogs.

Clemmons said he'll be glad to see the dogs gone.

"Those dogs have been trouble for years," Clemmons said. "You can't walk outside without wondering if you're going to be bitten by a dog."

Peyton said that while he has spoken to Clemmons several times since the attack, he has yet to discuss any kind of compensation.

"I fully intend to pay L.H. for his medical bills," Peyton said. "Beyond that, I honestly don't have anything to give him; I've got my son and my dogs, and that's it."

Clemmons said that he is consulting with an attorney.

Jon Dawson can be reached at (252) 559-1083 or at jdawson@freedomenc.com. Check out Jon's blog at http://jdawson.encblogs.com.