Tornado causes postponement of dog owner’s lawsuit

YOUNGSTOWN

The jury trial of a dog owner’s civil lawsuit against a former Mahoning Valley kennel owner in a suspected animal neglect case, which was to begin today, has been postponed.

Elizabeth Raab of Fresh Meadows, N.Y., who filed the lawsuit, requested the postponement due to recent tornado damage to her house; and Magistrate Timothy G. Welsh, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, granted her request. No new trial date is shown yet on the court docket.

Raab, owner of a 3-year-old male Rottweiler named Nitro, who died in Oct. 2008, sued Steven S. Croley, 38, former owner of the High Caliber K-9 Kennel on Coitsville-Hubbard Road.

The suit alleges Nitro died because Croley failed to provide adequate food, water, lodging or care for him.

However, Croley said in a pre-trial affidavit that Nitro died from the parvo virus, and that Croley could not have prevented the dog’s death.