Joey Sughroue carries pepper spray during his daily walks with his dog. Marybeth Macmanus carries a knife and mace on her walks. Brandon Bulman has considered buying a baton. 

They’re terrified, they say, of a German shepherd named Sheba that has attacked people and animals several times in the last two years in their small neighborhood of Kehena Beach Estates in Puna. 

Residents say the laws meant to protect them by preventing dog attacks — especially repeat attacks — aren’t being enforced on an island that’s already mourning the deaths of two people who were mauled in separate incidents involving other dogs.

Their most recent plea for help was filed in Third Circuit Court last month in the form of a victim impact statement in an ongoing case involving Sheba’s owner, Marie Carpentier. Nearly four dozen community members signed the March 19 statement “out of genuine fear for the safety of our families, our pets, and ourselves, and out of confusion about why the law has not done more to protect us.”

Macmanus’ partner, Anthony Slavec, was attacked when he tried to save a neighbor, Monica Toth, and her dog, Ruthie, from Sheba in September 2024, according to court documents. Ruthie was killed and Slavec’s chest was ripped open, causing a 6-inch incision, Macmanus said, adding that the dog bit Slavec’s arm too. 

Slavec still struggles to speak about the incident. “It’s definitely altered the way he experiences life and the world,” Macmanus said. 

The dog was impounded after the attack but it took six months before a complaint was filed in court. The German shepherd’s owner, Carpentier, was charged in March 2025 for negligent failure to control a dangerous dog under Hawai‘i County law. 

Carpentier, who is due back in court Thursday, could not be reached for comment last week.

She pleaded no contest in September 2025, and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, with $500 suspended as long as there were no further violations. The judge returned the dog to Carpentier, who was required to have it in a muzzle when outside of her residence, obtain a GPS device, register it with the county, and have the dog microchipped and attend obedience training. 

A month later, the dog got out and Carpentier was charged with permitting a dog to stray. The court ordered her to pay a $25 fine while the county seeks the $500 balance of the initial fine.

Bulman says he and and his dog, Bella, were attacked in March 2026 by the same German shepherd. He was on his morning walk with Bella when Sheba came out of nowhere, he says.

“I just looked down the hill and saw this dog barreling at us full-speed ahead,” Bulman said. “I had heard about this dog. I had never seen it.”

Sheba lunged for Bella’s neck and within seconds, Bulman says, he was on the ground wrestling the German shepherd to allow Bella to escape. Bulman wasn’t injured but Bella’s neck was ripped open, causing a 15-inch tear that required surgery to close.  

“It was the most acute traumatic experience I’ve been involved in,” Bulman said.

After Bulman’s attack, Sughroue collected signatures from neighbors for the petition asking the court to protect them from further attacks. Sughroue said it was most of the neighborhood, which consists of less than 100 people and is largely Airbnbs, he says.

“We are acutely aware of what an uncontrolled dangerous dog can do,” the petition says. “We wonder: who is next, and why hasn’t the new Dangerous Dog law stopped this?”

Carpentier’s lawyer did not respond to an email requesting comment. The county did not respond to messages seeking comment. 

A spokesperson for Hawai‘i County Police Department, Denise Laitinen, said in an email Monday that the department was “coordinating something with Animal Control to try to get this dog surrendered.”

‘Mechanisms Of Enforcement’

State Rep. Greggor Illagan, who represents Lower Puna, was behind the 2024 bill that became the new dangerous dog law, inflicting harsher penalties for owners whose dogs attack people and pets. It was partly in reaction to the death of Bob Northrop, who was attacked by four large dogs in Ocean View, and several other deadly maulings on the Big Island.

Illagan did not respond to a message seeking comment. 

Act 224 created an offense of negligent failure to control a dangerous dog including both misdemeanor and felony penalties. It also created a legal basis for declaring dogs dangerous, requirements for owners and the right for officers to inspect homes of dangerous dogs. 

Carpentier was not charged under the state law for the attack on Slavec and Ruthie. But the rules Carpentier was meant to follow are some of the requirements for owners of dangerous dogs under the state law.

Neighbors say she hasn’t followed those rules, and the county hasn’t done its due diligence to check that she has. A notice from animal control was placed on Carpentier’s gate after they attempted to check if she was complying with the rules prior to her hearing. 

That’s the only time neighbors say they’ve seen anyone from the county check if she was following the rules.

A spokesperson for the Hawai‘i County police department said police have made multiple checks at the residence and have not been able to contact Carpentier.

In a compliance hearing in March, Carpentier said she was following the requirements. But after the attack in October, neighbors say the collar Sheba was wearing was not a GPS tracker. 

Bulman and Macmanus say they’ve gotten conflicting messages from the county’s animal control and the police over who’s responsible for ensuring dangerous dog owners are complying with the rules and enforcing the law when they don’t. 

“We’re talking to the police officer and talking to animal control and then talking to the prosecutor,” Bulman said, “and they’re all pointing fingers back at each other” over who is responsible. 

Provisions in the dangerous dog law were delayed until July to give counties time to create a system to designate dogs as dangerous. 

But Bulman and Macmanus say their experience demonstrates that the county doesn’t have a clear policy and it should have been written into the law. 

“There needs to be mechanisms of enforcement,” Macmanus said. 

Kehena Estate neighbors say they don’t feel safe walking in the neighborhood, and they don’t want to wait to see better enforcement. Another attack, they say, could happen before then.

“It’s a beautiful neighborhood to be walking around in,” Sughroue said. “And now it’s like, well, got to remember the poop bags and also the pepper spray.”

Read the residents’ court petition below.