Couple Has Two More Weeks to Make Decision on Dogs

Gary and Susan Kolb, the Jefferson Township who own what the court has deemed “potentially dangerous” dogs has two additional weeks to decide whether to forfeit the dogs to the township or fight to save them, according to an article in The Daily Record.

The Kolbs were due to appear in Jefferson Township Municipal Court on Thursday night and give Judge William Bowkley and Prosecutor James LaSala their decision. However, the Kolbs’ attorney, Robert Dunn, requested and received a two-week postponement due to “other commitments,” the Daily Record said.

LaSala said that the township would “give the Kolbs one week to decide if they will forfeit the dogs to the township. If they agree to those terms, we will send the dogs to a facility outside of the state where they can possibly be trained, although I’m not entirely convinced that’s possible,” he told Judge William Bowkley last week in court.

As part of the agreement, the Kolbs would also have to work out a payment plan to repay the township $10,000 that it has spent to house the dogs for the last year, LaSala said.

The two 100-pound dogs have been housed by Jefferson Township since last October. Part of their time was spent at the Jefferson Pound, but they now reside at Woofs N Whiskers in Andover, according to Jefferson Township Deputy Police Chief William Craig.

Court records from Jersey City show that the dogs, Jumba and Imani, harmed residents there once in 2008 and twice in 2009. The dogs were supposed to be sold to a buyer in Los Angeles in 2009, but the Kolbs allegedly reneged on that agreement and moved to Oak Ridge with the dogs in 2011.

On Oct. 18, 2011, the Kolbs were cited for walking the dogs without muzzles, putting them in contempt of the agreement they had signed. The dogs were removed from their home at that time. They spent some time at the Jefferson Pound before being moved to Woofs N Whiskers, where they still reside today.