Viral Rescue Dog Diggy Scores Legal Victory, Gets to Stay in Forever Home
— -- The Michigan rescue dog whose viral fame led to a legal battle over whether he could stay with his owner will be allowed to stay in his forever home, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The dog, Diggy, went viral in June when a local dog rescue group shared a photo of him smiling with the man who adopted him, Dan Tillery, of Waterford Township, Michigan.
The viral photo led to an ordinance violation charge against Tillery by someone whom Tillery believes saw the viral photo and thought Diggy was a pit bull. The township has a longstanding ordinance barring pit bulls and pit bull mixes.
“I think it was just someone mad that he was getting so much attention,” Tillery, a musician, told ABC News.
The ordinance violation against Tillery, 30, prompted a public outcry, including an online petition to overturn the local pit bull ban that garnered more than 111,000 supporters.
Tillery, who said he is a lifelong resident of Waterford Township, contended that Diggy is an American bulldog.
To fight the ordinance, Tillery obtained documents from two local veterinarians verifying the dog’s breed as American bulldog. On Tuesday, Judge Richard Kuhn Jr., chief judge of the 51st District Court, dismissed the ordinance violation against Tillery, a court spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News.
“I’m just really happy,” Tillery said. “You try to be optimistic and positive but there were scares where my girlfriend and I, we’d look at each other and say, ‘What if they take our dog from us?’
“It’s just very satisfying,” added Tillery, who shared the happy news in a Facebook post the day of the court's ruling.
Waterford Township Clerk, Sue Camilleri, said the township's pit bull ban, in place since 1988, is intended as a safety measure.
"Every dog bites, we get that," she told ABC News. "But pit bulls, when they bite, can do much more damage, so for that reason we have banned pit bulls."
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) posted a position paper on its website titled "Why Breed-specific Legislation Is not the Answer." The online document calls pit bulls "the most frequent victims of breed-specific legislation."
"By generalizing the behaviors of dogs that look a certain way, innocent dogs suffer and may even be euthanized without evidence that they pose a threat," the document reads, in part. "It’s not the dog’s breed that determines risk -- it’s the dog’s behavior, general size, number of dogs involved and the vulnerability of the person bitten that determines whether or not a dog or dogs will cause a serious bite injury."
