A Montrose-based animal rescue that advocates for pit bull breeds had several license violations with the state prior to fostering a dog that killed a 7-year-old boy inside his family’s Gunnison home, state records show.
The Montrose Bully Breed Club said it facilitated the fostering of the 86-pound dog that killed Leelan Lokie and that the dog had “no documented history of aggression toward people.” After the Feb. 4 attack, the rescue group announced on its website it had relinquished its state license and would no longer offer assistance with fostering or adopting.
The nonprofit rescue called the second grader’s death “an incomprehensible and unforeseeable tragedy,” in a statement released a day after The Colorado Sun reported the attack.
But records from Colorado’s licensing and inspection program show the rescue group had previously violated several regulations, including by failing to document foster home inspections and omitting key details on adoption and transfer forms.
In March 2024, a state inspector found the rescue group had no foster home inspection records while one dog was in foster care at the time. Under state regulations, rescue groups must conduct in-person inspections of foster care providers at least once a year and before any animal is placed at the location, and must maintain a record of those inspections. The rescue also must disclose all of the dog’s diseases, injuries or abnormalities in the written, signed foster agreement.
The inspector found other violations that year, including no paperwork documenting interstate travel for two dogs that were transferred to Colorado from New Mexico or documents detailing their medical treatment.
The group made submitted corrections to the state in April 2024.
A year earlier, adoption records that the inspector reviewed in February 2023 did not have the breed or species, gender or physical description of the animal. The group also did not have paperwork documenting new dogs that they acquired or where they came from, or medical records for review, an inspection report shows.
That year, the rescue group reported that it had taken in 34 dogs, including some relinquished by their owners and some from out of state.
Inspection reports show that the rescue resolved its violations by submitting paperwork to the state.
According to its website, the Montrose Bully Breed Club formed in 2017 and became licensed in 2020. It is not clear whether the Montrose Bully Breed Club had conducted an inspection before placing the pit bull, named Boaz, with Leelan’s mother in the home she shared with her two young sons. Nor is it clear what information had been disclosed about the dog’s behavior.
There is no indication the rescue’s license was revoked or suspended at the time of the Feb. 4 attack.
Colorado’s program designed to protect the well-being of animals in facilities throughout the state is currently investigating the rescue, a state spokesperson said Thursday.
The Montrose Bully Breed Club did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Colorado Sun. Following the attack, the rescue deleted several of its public posts about Boaz.
A contentious dog debate
When a Gunnison police officer arrived at the home just after 7 a.m. on Feb. 4, she found Boaz, a tan-and-white pit bull mix, with its jaws on the boy’s neck, according to a police report obtained by The Colorado Sun. The officer fired a single shot at the dog, causing it to release the boy.
The officer laid the boy flat, lifted his shirt and began CPR, switching off with another officer, until paramedics arrived, the report said. The officer turned to the boy’s mother, who was crying and had bite wounds on her fingers, and gave her a hug.
At 10:30 a.m., the officer was told that the boy died, the report said.
The police’s investigation into the attack is ongoing.
The death of Leelan, who was remembered as a child with boundless energy and a fierce love for his family, left the tight-knit Western Slope community reeling as it rallied behind the boy’s mother, Kirsten “Kirky” Swift, and raised more than $135,000 through an online fundraising campaign.
The attack spurred calls online for tighter controls on pit bulls, including from social media groups that compile pit bull attacks across the country and contend the breed is dangerous. Others called for more careful evaluation and placement of dogs showing signs of aggression as a more effective safeguard.
The boy’s death adds to a series of fatal dog attacks in Colorado over the past two decades. Since 2003, at least five people in the state have been killed in attacks involving pit bulls, according to a Colorado Sun review of news reports.
In February 2025, Franklin Baca, 57, was killed by his neighbor’s pit bull while walking his dog in Conejos County. In 2022, two pit bulls fatally attacked Mary Gehring, 88, and seriously injured her 12-year-old grandson in Golden. In 2016, Susan Shawl, 60, was killed by two pit bulls owned by her son at their Conifer home. And in 2003, 40-year-old Jennifer Brooke was fatally mauled by a pack of pit bulls in Elbert County.
The last known fatal pit bull attack in Colorado before 2003 occurred in 1986, when a 3-year-old Denver boy who wandered onto a neighbor’s property was killed by a pit bull chained to a carport.
Nationally, deaths caused by dogs of all breeds increased each year from 2018 through 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Independent groups that track fatal dog attacks say pit bulls account for a significant share of those deaths, though precise national data was unavailable.
The debate over how to prevent those deaths has played out in communities across the state. In the last decade, several cities with highly controversial pit bull bans have overturned them.
Aurora is one of the latest cities in Colorado to repeal its breed-specific ban, ending a decades-long debate over whether pit bulls should be allowed in the city. In November 2024, 56% of voters rejected the ban.
In one case study on breed-specific legislation, the University of Denver found that Denver spent more than $100 million enforcing the 30-year ban, prior to voters repealing it in 2020, with little measurable impact on public safety. Now, owners of dogs with physical traits of American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers or Staffordshire bull terriers must receive a breed assessment and obtain a permit.
If there are no violations for the dog for three consecutive years, owners may register their dog like any other in Denver.
Another 2022 study by animal experts, including a professor of clinical sciences at the Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine, found growing evidence that the breed bans do little to make communities safer because a dog’s breed provides little predictive information about its behavior. A dog’s behavior is often a “complex interaction” of contextual and environmental factors, the authors wrote.
A minority of the nearly 600 veterinarians surveyed in the study — 11% — said they felt breed bans improved public safety and 75% said they felt a ban creates an “animal welfare issue.” Instead of legislation targeting specific breeds, many supported stricter leash laws, more public education on animal behavior and more legal accountability for owners of aggressive dogs that bite or attack another dog or person.
Nearly 200 pit bull-type dogs were in shelters along the Western Slope and more than 61,000 across Colorado, according to pet listings on Petfinder as of Thursday.
“A long road for all involved”
Just before the attack, Swift, Leelan’s mother, told police she was “fixing” her son’s pants when Boaz approached her and growled, according to the police report. She pushed Boaz away and then the dog started to attack Leelan.
Swift was participating in the rescue’s foster program “in good faith,” Jessica Golden, president of the organization, said in a statement last week, offering no other details in the rescue’s protocols.
“We are cooperating fully with authorities and have suspended placements while we review our protocols with outside professionals,” she said at the time.
Prior to being a foster dog at Swift’s home, Boaz, who also went by the name Jasper, was sheltered at the Montrose Animal Shelter. A Petfinder listing identified him as a pit bull terrier mix between 3 and 8 years old.
In a Dec.17 post on the shelter’s Facebook page, an administrator described Boaz as “fantastic with children” and a “cuddlebug” that will “shower you with kisses and affection.” The shelter later edited the post to clarify that the description was provided by “another agency.”
The shelter said he “may exhibit some resource guarding behavior” and that it was best to feed him separately from other dogs. Below the description, three photos show Boaz standing on a patch of grass.
Other public posts made by The Montrose Bully Breed Club said the group was seeking sponsorships to fund more training for Boaz after he lashed out at another dog, but did not cause any injury.
“Boaz deserves someone that understands him and his needs. Someone that can nurture his confidence while providing exceptionally clear boundaries,” Tasha Todak, the group’s vice president, wrote in a Jan. 9 post that has since been deleted. “This will be a long road for all involved, but he really does deserve it.”
The city of Gunnison prohibits any dog within city limits that bites or attacks a person or other domestic animals without provocation, per its city code. It also bars any dog that approaches people or animals in “a terrorizing manner” or “behaves in a way that would lead a reasonable person to believe the dog may inflict injury or death, whether or not the animal does attack or is capable of attack,” the code says.
No dog under the name Boaz, or the dog’s previous name, Jasper, is listed in the state’s record of dangerous dogs. It is unclear if any other documentation in regard to Boaz’s behavior was made prior to the attack. On Jan. 8, Todak wrote that Boaz was experiencing stress from being inside a kennel.
“Unfortunately this is the last call for Boaz, so if you think you’re up for the rehabilitation PLEASE reach out ASAP,” Todak wrote.