BAKERSFIELD, CA-- Scary moments Sunday for some neighbors in East Bakersfield after a pack of pit bulls broke into a back yard and killed a puppy.
Yeltzin Nuno was home at the time and said the dogs are an issue in the neighborhood.
"Four pit bulls came into our yard and ate our little poodle,” Nuno said. “That is like the third dog they have killed. That's just in this week." Vernon Selbach says the dogs then came into his yard.
"I actually have a pellet gun sitting by my back door,” Selbach said.
“When I went out the back door to take a look one of them, the black and white one came at me. I popped him and called the Kern County Sheriff's Department and let him know I do have a gun next to me and if they (the dogs) came at me, then I will shoot them."
Kern County Animal Control told 17 News they will hold the dogs for ten days.
The owners will have to pay a fee to pick them up. Selbach thinks the whole incident could have been avoided.
"Make sure people take care of their animals,” Selbach said. “That's the biggest thing. Keep them locked up right in the fences. We have kids in the neighborhood and I don't want to see nobody bit."
Animal control officers told 17 News if no one claims the dogs, they will become property of the county.
The pit bulls will not be put up for adoption because they were involved in the death of an animal.
Two of the three owners wouldn't talk to us on camera. The other was not home.