PELL CITY, Alabama --- St. Clair County District Judge Alan Furr today ordered the euthanization of 33 Rottweilers seized from a home in Leeds where two other dogs attacked and killed a neighbor on Sept. 20.

The two attacking Rottweilers were killed by police on the scene of the mauling, which claimed the life of Donald Thomas, 83.

Furr made his decision this afternoon after hearing testimony from Leeds police Detective A. R. Holman that the dogs acted aggressively toward animal control workers who caged them and took them from the home on Weaver Avenue.

"The dogs were constantly barking, lunging at the bars and trying to get out of the cages," Holman said. She said they growled, snarled and bit at catch poles during the seizure, which she said took a total of about three hours.

Gwendolyn Connelly, a prosecutor with the St. Clair County District Attorney's office, asked Furr to order that the dogs be put to death.

"I don't feel they could be safely adopted out," Connelly said. "They were raised in an environment that created basically a murder weapon."

Furr agreed.

"They're either vicious or they have vicious tendencies," Furr said. He said he would enter an order that the dogs "be disposed of in a humane manner."

Holman was the only witness at the hearing.

The dogs' owners, Jerry and Jacqueline Lenton, were not at the hearing.

Leeds police Chief Byron Jackson said Monday the Lentons had relinquished ownership of the dogs.

Furr scheduled a hearing for Oct. 30 to consider whether the Lentons would have to pay restitution for the cost of caring for the dogs, which have been kept by Birmingham-Jefferson Animal Control since the incident.

Jackson said Monday the cost of caring for the dogs had amounted to about $4,000.

Holman also testified during the hearing, in response to questions from Connelly, about the injuries to Thomas, who was still alive when his wife found him in the Lenton's yard. Thomas, a Korean War veteran, was a longtime friend of the Lentons.

"From about the knee area down his jeans were shredded and both legs were shredded down to the bone," Holman said.

She said Thomas also had bite wounds to his right arm.

Jackson said Wednesday that prosecutors were still investigating and trying to decide whether to bring charges or to present the case to a grand jury.

She also said the two dogs acted aggressively toward the first police officer who arrived on the scene, and that officer shot them to death "in defense of himself and the victim."