A car door opened in a Narragansett shopping plaza. 14 Belgian Malinois dogs came rushing out.

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A car door opened in a Narragansett shopping plaza. 14 Belgian Malinois dogs came rushing out.

A wild scene unfolded in Narragansett on Wednesday, May 21, when 14 dogs burst out of an SUV in a shopping plaza parking lot, with some of the dogs running into the nearby

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After the dogs were rounded up, a similar situation happened at a nearby ballfield, when the dogs again poured out of the car, this time attacking and badly injuring one of their own, a young, smaller dog.

“I have never seen anything like it. I’m not sure anyone has,” said Wayne Kezirian, president and general agent for

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Fourteen Belgian Malinois dogs traveling in an SUV that stopped in Narragansett bolted from the car a second time when they were taken to a ballfield.

Why were the 14 dogs in a car in Narragansett?

The dogs are all

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, large animals that are bred for protection and often used as police dogs. The owner told Kezirian he was driving with all 14 in his SUV from New York to Maine, where he was planning on moving.

“I don’t know how he drove the car with all the dogs in it. There wasn’t an inch to spare,” Kezirian said.

A woman in another car was traveling with the man. Her car had three dogs inside, according to Kezirian. The man told Kezirian he stopped at the shopping plaza because the dogs had started to fight, and he wanted to take one of the dogs from the car. When he opened the door, they all rushed out.

“It’s a protective breed, so they’re difficult to handle anyway,” Kezirian said.

Dogs began attacking each other at Narragansett ballfield

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responded to Salt Pond Plaza and found two vehicles parked near West Marine containing a total of 17 dogs, according to Narragansett Police Lt. Justin Hoffman.

“As officers approached, the rear door of one of the SUVs unexpectedly opened, allowing 14 Belgian Malinois to escape and run through the plaza,” Hoffman said via email. “Some of the dogs entered nearby businesses. With the assistance of bystanders, officers were able to help the owner safely return all 14 dogs to the vehicle. Fortunately, no injuries were reported during this initial containment effort.”

Since there was no local animal control officer on duty, Hoffman requested help from

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, he said. Their officer “promptly responded” and also contacted the RISPCA, Hoffman said.

When Kezirian arrived from Warwick at about 12:30 p.m., the dogs were back inside the car. They were still restless. As they moved in the tight quarters, they kept bumping into each other and hitting the *****. “You’d have thought somebody was behind you at a red light,” Kezirian said.

The police and animal control filled Kezirian in on what had happened. He said, “It was a much more complicated situation than I envisioned.”

Before Kezirian got there, the police persuaded the dog owner to voluntarily surrender several of the dogs, Hoffman said. To ensure the safe transfer of the dogs, the police decided to use a Local Little field enclosed by a fence, according to Hoffman.

The police told the owner to remove the surrendered dogs one at a time, according to Hoffman, but as soon as the door opened, the dogs again charged out of the car, this time attacking the younger dog.

“They all turned on one dog and were attacking that dog,” Kezirian said. “As a pack, they were attacking that dog.”

The owner couldn’t stop the attack. Hoffman and the other Narragansett officers stepped in “to protect the dog, using department-issued OC (

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) spray to break up the assault long enough for an officer to retrieve the injured animal,” Hoffman said.

Narragansett Police Officer Patrick Canavan lifted the younger dog and carried it away. “If he had not done that, that dog would be dead,” Kezirian said.

As Canavan carried the dog, several dogs still tried getting at it, prompting the officers to spray the dogs again, Hoffman said.

“Miraculously, none of the officers or individuals present were injured during this chaotic incident,” Hoffman said.

Once the animals were taken away, the police contacted the Narragansett Parks and Recreation Department, which “decontaminated the baseball field using the facility’s irrigation system,” Hoffman said.

Nine of the dogs surrendered by owner

The dogs’ owner, after talking with Kezirian and the police, ultimately agreed to give up nine of the dogs. The RISPCA has three of them, while South Kingstown Animal Control, which works with the Narragansett Police Department, has six.

Among the dogs in the RISPCA’s care is the young one that was attacked by the others. Her name is Liberty. She’s one year old. Kezirian brought the three dogs back to RISPCA by about 4 p.m. Wednesday, where veterinarian Michelle Pinto had Liberty in surgery until about 8 p.m.

“She’s covered with stitches. She’s expected to be OK,” Kezirian said.

Who owned the dogs?

The owner of the dogs was cooperative, Kezirian said. He told Kezirian he was planning to move from New York to Maine and also sell some of the dogs.

“I’m not sure his grasp of reality was solid,” Kezirian said.

The man is in his 40s and resides in Ontario, New York, according to Kezirian, who declined to give the man’s name. The man described the woman in the other car as his girlfriend. They were traveling through Narragansett on the way to Maine because the woman has some ties to the area, Kezirian was told.

The dogs are skinny. The owner told Kezirian he ran out of money and was rationing their food. Kezirian said Narragansett police officers bought food for the dogs.

Kezirian said it seemed reasonable for the owner to keep five of the dogs, because the five could fit reasonably well in his car. It would also be difficult to find adoptive homes for the five dogs he kept because of age, illness and temperament, according to Kezirian.

If the RISPCA seized the dogs and pressed criminal charges, it would take longer to find the dogs new homes, because they’d have to wait until the conclusion of the criminal case, Kezirian said. Additionally, he said, the charges could be difficult to prove.

“It was the lesser of two evils,” Kezirian said.

Where are the dogs now?

Now the RISPCA and

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have nine more dogs in their care. Boarding and veterinary costs will add up. Kezirian noted that the agencies could use financial support.

Kezirian said the RISPCA will check with law enforcement agencies to see if they’re interested in adopting any of their dogs for police work. After that, the dogs would be put up for adoption from the general public.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal:

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