Pittsburgh Steelers Linebacker Joey Porter’s Dogs Escape, Kill Horse

By Mark Hoerrner

Finding Nemo wasn’t the issue this time. It was keeping him from eating the livestock.

Tina and Nemo, a pit bull and a mastiff respectively, escaped from their enclosure in Pine, Penn. and took down a miniature horse on a neighbor’s farm, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Though the two dogs put on an innocent face, they were found in the corral with the dead horse when Northern Regional police officers arrived on the scene.
"I am saddened to learn that my dogs escaped from my yard and attacked and killed a horse," Porter said in a statement. "It was an accident and I am not sure how the dogs escaped. We have a very secure yard with a six-foot fence around it and this has never happened before. I have reached out to the owners of the horse and will do whatever I can to help them get through this very unfortunate situation."
Police were instantly aware of who the dogs belonged to, reported the Post-Gazette, as the dogs had escaped previously and caused a bit of mischief, though no horses were killed during that event.

Porter will face a host of violations of state and municipal laws, including harboring dangerous dogs, failure to confine said dogs and failure to register his dogs with the state. The penalties for such violations will amount to fines in the hundreds of dollars. The police also notified the state Department of Agriculture which will act in an advisory capacity.

Pennsylvania has a fund that covers the loss of an animal in the event of a dog attack. The 6-year-old miniature horse was probably worth about $4,000. The fund will pay up to $10,000 to replace a deceased animal.

Porter made apologies to the family and will be returning the dogs to a kennel in California. He told the Post-Gazette that the dogs were raised as pets, not attack animals, and is still investigating how the animals escaped his fenced yard.

Richard and Eleanor Bowers, the owners of the horse, were unavailable for comment. They were not home at the time of the attack, but a daughter of the Bowers was staying at the residence.