KATY, Texas — It's been less than 24 hours since screams erupted in a Katy neighborhood.
A 7-month-old German Shepherd named Hatchy had her leg in the jaws of a leg hold trap set right in a neighbor's front yard.
"She was yelling and screaming for help," said Krystal Lopez. "I got out of my car and looked and said 'Oh my God.' She was crying and the dog was crying so much, you could see it coming down her face."
A day later, Hatchy's owner Kathy still doesn't understand why these traps were in her neighbor's front yard.
"I lost my mind and I was just scared, just scared," said Kathy.
Kathy tried opening the jaws of the trap on her own, but it didn't work. She ended up getting hurt herself.
"Luckily the girl, she saw me," said Kathy.
Hatchy's leg is still swollen, but she'll be just fine. The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office says the man set the traps to catch animals tearing up his flower beds.
Neighbors told KHOU 11 News they don't buy it.
"It was close to the sidewalk," said Lopez. "That's crazy. We live in a neighborhood, not land where no one is around."
Deputies say having traps like this in your front yard is legal, but admit they've never seen it before and that it defies common sense.
"If my 4-pound Maltese got stuck in that, I'm sorry but that guy would've been paying for a dead dog," said Lopez.
Neighbors worry next time, it may not be a dog that gets hurt.
"There's kids that play ball on the street, what if they go and dive for the balls, what if they fall into his yard," said Lopez.
No charges will be filed against the man that set the traps, police said.
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