Tiffany Baraโs Monday morning started off routine. She got her kids ready for school and they were out the front door and off to the bus just after 7 a.m.
They were greeted in the yard of their home in Picture Rocks by their dogs. There was Bandit. And Kane. But missing was their puppy, Buddy, an 8-month-old German shepherd mix.
Bara peered across the street to her neighborโs home, a similar-style house on the corner of West Woolcott Lane just down the way from West Silverbell Road. Officers from the Pima Animal Care Center gathered in the yard, which is confined by a waist-high fence. They were looking at something on the ground.
Bara figured out quickly it was Buddy. She learned later that her dog had been shot and killed by her neighbor, Marilyn Hendrickson, an off-duty Marana animal control officer.
โMy son is heartbroken. Buddy was his,โ Bara said. โWe rescued him from an abuser. Heโd always curl up in a little ball.โ
Through interviews with those involved and records obtained by the Star, a complicated portrait of a months-long neighborsโ dispute involving the Baras, Hendrickson and PACC has emerged from what transpired early Monday southwest of Marana in unincorporated Pima County.
Chickens killed
Hendrickson said she was equal parts remorseful and frustrated. She called the situation a touchy subject. She didnโt want to do what she did, Hendrickson said, but she was desperate.
She had lost 13 chickens in the last six months, and suspected the culprits were her canine neighbors, not the wild animals that occasionally wander into the neighborhood from the swaths of open land around them.
Hendrickson made at least five calls to PACC, her former employer, but felt the center didnโt take care of the problem. She installed surveillance cameras. She kept her children inside.
But the problem worsened in the last few weeks, so she took matters into her own hands. Following what Hendrickson said was a nighttime attack Monday, she caught Buddy in a trap. And she shot him.
She maintained she acted within her rights.
โIt took me six months of animal loss, no response โ Iโve felt there was no response from PACC. They never did anything to ensure my safety,โ she said. โI had to do things myself that I didnโt want to do.โ
The fallout was immediate. Hendrickson has been placed on leave pending an investigation by Marana Animal Services. PACC cited Tiffany Baraโs husband, Justin, with three counts each of violating leash laws and for the dogs biting animals. Bandit and Kane were taken by PACC, and the Baras need to go to the center to get them back.
A criminal case has ended up with the Pima County Sheriffโs Department, something spokesman Deputy James Allerton could only refer to as โan unusual situation, thatโs for sure.โ
Allerton cautioned that the investigation is ongoing and in its early stages. Speaking generally, he said โit dependsโ whether shooting and killing an animal on your own property is a crime.
โThereโs an animal cruelty statute that could apply to any force on an animal. On the other hand, there are statutes that mitigate that,โ Allerton said. โFrom our perspective, we did have a response to that area. Thatโs quite literally all we have for information we can provide at the time.โ
Kristen Hassen, PACC director of animal services, had another description: tragic and avoidable. She stressed her officers always responded and did everything they could when Hendrickson called. They would have done so again if Hendrickson had kept Buddy in the trap.
โUnfortunately, officers were not given this opportunity,โ Hassen said in a statement. โInstead, Ms. Hendrickson set and baited a trap, waited for a dog to enter the trap, and then shot the trapped dog, only calling PACC officers afterwards to request they pick up the carcass. This needless violence by a trained animal protection officer with many years of experience that resulted in the death of a trapped dog could have been prevented if Ms. Hendrickson had simply called officers to remove the dog.โ
First calls to PACC
For Hendrickson, the motivation for her actions dates back to June, when she made her first call to PACC, records show. She found a dog in her coop with a chicken in its mouth. After she chased it off her property, she counted 10 chickens dead or dying.
Hendrickson spoke with the neighbors, the Baras. Tiffany was skeptical their dogs were responsible and reluctantly agreed to replace the chickens. That fell through after the local feeders store said they were out. Hendrickson said Tiffany stopped responding to text messages.
Tiffany maintained her dogs are friendly. Theyโll greet everyone at the gate, unless they donโt know you. Theyโll bark but never bite.
She acknowledged they would escape from the yard, despite efforts to patch their fence, pack holes they dug, and block the fencing with a kennel.
โWeโve literally tried everything except barbed wire,โ she said. โDogs are dogs. Theyโre going to find a way to get out. Animals are animals. Theyโre going to do whatever they want.โ
Hendrickson, too, said she tried everything. She repaired holes in the fences, chicken coop and goat pen with railroad ties. She installed the cameras. And she continued to call PACC.
โIโve lived in this neighborhood for 20 years,โ Hendrickson said. โIโve never reported anything except for the attacks on my animals.โ
Records show Hendrickson called PACC five times since Aug. 30. During that time, three more chickens were killed. She showed photos and video to officers. During an Oct. 18 phone call, she stated โshe will shoot a dog attacking her animals on her propertyโ if it persisted, according to records.
In one case, officers went to serve the Baras with a citation, but they couldnโt find them. After another call, Tiffany was given a pamphlet about leash laws and was threatened with a citation should the problems persist.
The final straw came early Monday, just after midnight. Hendrickson heard her goats screaming and crying. She saw a dog on video pinning the goats down. She called PACC, which sent personnel to the home. They left after they didnโt find the dogs and found the goats without injury. They said videos were too โshadowy.โ
โThe two goats were injured,โ Hendrickson said. โThey canโt put weight on their legs.โ
So Hendrickson set up the trap. Four hours later, she called PACC again to tell them she killed Buddy.
โI was being victimized every night,โ Hendrickson said. โI feel like PACC has hurt my reputation so bad. I guess Iโll let myself be victimized. I guess theyโre not going to help me.โ
In interviews with officers, Hendrickson asked for Kane and Bandit to be evaluated to see if they were dangerous, records show. Officers said they would talk to the people responsible for that to get it started, to which Hendrickson replied sheโd โjust have to shoot the dog,โ according to records, adding that she felt bad for shooting Buddy.
She was informed to call PACC instead of shooting a dog if she traps one in the future.
Tiffany Bara remembers seeing emergency lights when waking up in the middle of the night but went back to sleep without thinking anything of it.
Sheโs frustrated she wasnโt told about Buddyโs death.
PACC said itโs standard to hold off on notifying an animal owner while a case is being investigated.
Bara is particularly frustrated because she feels thereโs still no proof Buddy โ or her other two dogs โ killed any of the Hendricksonโs animals.
โItโs sad to what happened to Buddy. He obviously was out of the yard,โ she said. โBut where is the proof. Just because my dog was out of the yard doesnโt mean he killed them?โ
And sheโs ultimately concerned about the safety of her and her family. Theyโre now looking to move.
