Smokey, a short, gray and white dog with a sweet smile and big hazel eyes, is living on borrowed time -- either as a North Little Rock resident or as a living, breathing canine.
The dog and his owners are set to go to trial in North Little Rock District Court on Oct. 12 before Judge Randy Morley after the owners were found in violation of the city's breed ban twice in the past two years. After the second time a banned pit bull breed is found within city limits, by law it can be "humanely destroyed" by court order.
But Smokey is a cane corso, an Italian breed of mastiff, not a pit bull or a mix of pit bull breeds.
The owners, Ezequiel Madrigal and his sister Noelia Hodges, received the dog as a gift when he was a puppy from a breeder of cane corso dogs in Texas.
Dr. Randy Ashley, a veterinarian at Animal Medical Clinic in North Little Rock, wrote Judge Morely a letter for the owners after Smokey was brought in to be neutered and tattooed as a banned breed the first time Animal Control detained him.
"Cane Corsos are not banned and this dog is no pit bull," he said in the letter. "I see hundreds of cane corsos and they are very nice dogs. The North Little Rock Animal Shelter is quick to label many dogs pit mixes, or pit bulls when in fact they are not."
Madrigal pleaded innocent to having a banned breed in district court on Thursday and plans to seek legal counsel for the next court date. Smokey is allowed within city limits until then, thanks to Mayor Terry Hartwick's executive order declaring so.
"I'm very happy with what happened today," Madrigal said. "I was happy that the judge was aware of the situation. And I was very happy that this time, for some unexplainable reason, they were actually listening to me, to us."
Throughout his legal ordeal, Smokey, who weighs 81 pounds, has been kind of chill. The weekend before the dog's latest court hearing, he sat next to his owners at Kilwins chocolate and ice cream shop in Little Rock for over an hour in the sun. He greeted strangers who wanted to pet him with affection, and never barked.
"I don't know how many dogs would have been here as long as he has, almost an hour, just sitting here," Madrigal said. "Yeah, you throw him a little snack here and there and he's fine, and let me tell you he is fighting chasing these birds with every ounce of his being."
Smokey sat and offered his paw to shake for treats as he is trained to do. Eventually, he ay down at his owners' feet.
"This is not [just] an animal," Madrigal explained. "This is my smokely dokely, this is the guy I say good morning to, this is the guy I say goodnight to ... he's the best helper you've ever had."
Smokey is accompanied at all times, he is not in a cage at home or tied up outside. Madrigal is able to work from home for FedEx, so he takes Smokey out for walks and for the bathroom regularly.
"Everywhere he goes, someone is with him and we're the same people he's been with his whole life."
On July 25, Madrigal let Smokey out on a leash to use the bathroom when an officer from North Little Rock Animal Control spotted and detained him for a second offense of being in city limits where an active ban on certain breeds is in place.
"I messed up so bad and I'm just gonna have to live with that, I'm gonna have to see myself in the mirror with that," Madrigal said. "But when you bend over backward to make sure that he's taken care of, it's very off-putting and sad and it really makes you feel like you're in the wrong place, like I'm in the wrong place. I need to not be here and that's an ugly feeling."
Madrigal had brought Smokey with him from his parents' house in Cabot because he was watching his niece at his sister's house while she was in Maine with their parents. When their parents return, Smokey will live in Cabot with them.
"He wasn't living here to begin with, it was an out-of-necessity thing," he said.
Madrigal got a ticket for having a breed mixed with pit bull. He said that officer Austin Everett with the city Animal Control told him that if Smokey was over 10% mixed with a banned breed, he was still in violation.
"Who gets to decide? That is my point. How do I get to appeal? How do I get to feel like I was heard?" he asked. "I understand all of this costs money, make the owner pay for it, an owner that cares will pay for it, an owner that doesn't will relinquish the dog, and you're done. You got what you wanted. I would take him to their training courses, I would register him, I would take him where they want me to take him. I would make sure he was taken care of the way they want him to be taken care of."
ORDINANCE NO. 7673
Adam Tindell, director at the North Little Rock Animal Shelter and Animal Control, said that officers identify dog breeds according to City Ordinance No. 7673 prohibiting pit bull breeds, and the American Kennel Club common descriptions of all dog breeds. Officers are also trained in breed identification.
Enacted in 2003, the ordinance states that banned pit bull dogs are any of the following breeds: American pit bull terrier; Staffordshire bull terrier; American Staffordshire terrier; American bull dog; any dog whose mother or father is of a breed which is defined as a banned breed of dog; any dog conforming or substantially conforming to the breed of American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier or American bull dog as defined by the United Kennel Club or American Kennel Club; or any dog which is of the breed commonly referred to as "pit bull" and commonly recognized and identifiable as such.
That list mentions nothing about cane corsos.
Only certain breeds registered with the American Kennel Club show dogs may be exempt from this ban provided that the owner has documentation.
Madrigal and Hodges, his sister, were under the impression that they had a cane corso, declared so by Dr. Mary Johnson at Park Hill Pet Clinic when Smokey was five months old.
Johnson, who has been a practicing vet for 33 years, admitted that a cane corso does look similar to banned breeds such as a pit bull and American bully, but it generally is larger in size.
Before the family faced a hearing on Thursday with Judge Morely at the North Little Rock Justice Center, Hartwick signed an executive order declaring that Smokey be released and allowed to stay within city limits until their court date.
"[Terry Hartwick] called me first to verify what was going on," Madrigal said. "And then he called me second, to make sure that I was able to pick him up, then he called me a third time just to check in, 'I'm just calling to see how he's doing,' [he said]. I was like, 'OK, you might have won a vote today.'"
Hodges said Tindell assured her that Smokey was not in any danger of "being put down."
"If the dog is found to be convicted and they don't find any other way to find the dog rescues [in other cities] and things of that nature, most the time the dog goes to a rescue unless it's super aggressive," he explained. "Very few court orders have actually been court-ordered to be put down."
"But you're telling me, I cannot have him, because you cannot overlook this law, because the law says that the second time he's caught within city limits he's going to be killed," Hodges said.
The ordinance states, "If the animal is found within the city limits a second time, the owner shall, upon conviction in the North Little Rock District Court, be fined as provided pursuant to North Little Rock Municipal Court. Any such order of conviction shall include seizure of the animal by North Little Rock Animal Control personnel to be humanely destroyed."
Madrigal said it didn't matter if he had just been driving through the city with Smokey or if he was just visiting. Hodges said that unless it's a vet visit, owners cannot bring certain dog breeds into the city.
"We're always looking for any way not to have to euthanize anyone's dog, or any dog, or any animal, period," Tindell said. "But when you have these types of numbers, what do you do? Where do they go? And there's no state laws that require spay and neuter or anything like that, but that's what saves lives is spay and neuter."
On the first offense, many dog owners face stipulations to have their dog relocated within 48 hours, he added.
"Use the words that you put in the ordinance ..." Madrigal said. "Even the pound doesn't want to say 'destroy,' and I said 'oh no, say destroy, say it, say that you picked up my dog to destroy it,' not euthanized. Own it, just say it. Being euthanized is subjective. What's ethical for you is not ethical for me."
"The worst part of it is that we're not the only ones," Hodges said. "There's so many owners who have lost their pets over this thing because the dog catchers don't want to deal with it because it's too much. It's understandable but not all dogs are the same."
A handyman the family has hired in the past had his pit bull put down by the city and he was not allowed in the same room as his dog for the procedure, Hodges added.
FIRST OFFENSE
About two years ago, Smokey was living with Hodges. Her daughter took him for a walk when she was approached by a man "dressed as" a police officer, Madrigal said.
"She came in, she said, 'some man is talking to me,' and well, that's a problem," he said. "So my sister went out there and it turns out it was the animal control gentleman, but it was just a very bad experience. He did not identify himself, he just said, 'you can't have that dog here.'"
The family ended up filing a complaint with Tindell about officer Everett at North Little Rock Animal Control.
At first, the family refused to provide IDs and did not turn over their. A week later, Everett returned with a warrant to retrieve Smokey.
"He got there with all these cops, all this stuff meant to intimidate you," Madrigal said. "I mean, I'm a law-abiding person as far as running my ID, and they're real big on intimidating you on running your ID. Go right ahead, you know what I mean?"
The family paid the $100 fine to release Smokey and relocated him to their parents' home in Cabot, where pit bulls within city limits have an annual permit fee of $150. Smokey was neutered and marked with a tattoo for identification.
The siblings agreed that they would have paid any amount to put Smokey through special behavioral training, register him with any organization, perform any DNA test and meet any other requirements, at any cost to keep him.
Those options were not available at the time.
In December of 2022, Judge Morely did not consider Smokey's paperwork declaring him a cane corso, Madrigal said. The judge waived the $500 fine, put Hodges on a 12-month Animal Control probation and ordered the dog be relocated outside city limits.
"He told me to get rid of 'the pit bull' or I would be paying hefty fines," she said. "... The dog catcher said, that's what it is, then that's what it is and I'm sure the court is tired of hearing people's arguments."
'THE COURT IS NOT FOR SMOKEY'
After Hodges posted on Facebook about Smokey being detained a second time last month by Animal Control, over 200 people liked the post and it was shared a thousand times.
"It's really heartbreaking, I had to do something," she said.
Members of the North Little Rock community and those in a Facebook group called Central Arkansas Cane Corsos called the city Animal Control demanding that Smokey be freed.
Hodges said if it wasn't for Hartwick's order, Smokey might already be dead because the shelter has the right to put him down whenever it reaches capacity. She wrote him a letter thanking him personally.
"The court is not for Smokey," she added. "This is not a fight on whether he's a cane corso or not."
Madrigal agreed, saying that they weren't going to win that fight since the judge would not look at their registration and vet documents.
"It's trained, it's in the house, you've never received a call for it, I think that if this dog was a troublemaker, you would have received a call for it in its two years of life," he added.
In Little Rock, pit bull owners have to register their dogs for $150 and are only allowed two dogs of these breeds.
Maumelle is the most recent city to remove its pit bull breed ban as of 2021, replacing it with a set of ordinances for the behavior of all dogs.