Print edition: 
The city of Wichita will seek jail time for the owner of three pit bulls involved in the fatal mauling of a neighbor's dog, a prosecutor told a judge Thursday.
Michelle Meier, an assistant city prosecutor, voiced the city's intention during the owner's initial court appearance in the case. The pit bulls' owner, Kristi Bakhtiar, has been charged with a number of animal control misdemeanors related to the attack.
Bakhtiar also faces multiple fines, some up to $1,000, Municipal Judge Pro Tem John Sherwood said Thursday night at a city environmental court session, held at the police substation near Edgemoor and Kellogg.
Bakhtiar declined to comment afterward.
She will be represented by a public defender. She faces a second court appearance on April 29.
After the Feb. 12 mauling of the neighbor's corgi, the city euthanized three pit bulls involved in the attack, which occurred in the corgi's fenced-in backyard.
Bakhtiar faces 15 animal control counts, a city official has said.
The misdemeanor charges involve the mauling and accuse Bakhtiar of license violations, letting dogs run loose and failing to comply with pit bull requirements that they be spayed or neutered and have identifying microchips.
The city has cited her in the past over two other pit bulls she owned after the dogs were found to be aggressive. Those two pit bulls also were euthanized.
And the city previously obtained 15 misdemeanor animal control convictions against her.
On Thursday night, the 76-year-old woman whose dog was killed in the Feb. 12 mauling declined to comment. Her veterinarians and several of her friends and relatives sat with her at the court session.
She is not being named over concerns about her security.
In a previous interview, she told The Eagle that Skeets, the corgi, was dear to her because of his companionship and because he helped her cope with her hearing impairment. When the phone rang, he would run to the phone and howl, alerting her.
While he was in his fenced-in backyard, three pit bulls from Bakhtiar's nearby house got through multiple fences — some as high as 6 feet. One or more of the powerful dogs mauled Skeets.
Skeets' owner and her veterinarians have said the attack could have been prevented. They blamed Bakhtiar and the city, saying that she was irresponsible and that the city's animal control enforcement was lacking, partly because of a lack of funding and staffing.
In a previous interview, Bakhtiar said she is sorry for her neighbor's loss but didn't see the mauling coming.
Don Henry, the city environmental services manager, who helps oversee animal control, said the problem in Bakhtiar's case was animals running loose, not a lack of staffing.
The city has known of complaints about dogs running loose from Bakhtiar's address dating to July 2007, and "staff took appropriate enforcement actions in every case," Henry said.
