RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — CBS 17 is digging deeper into the number of dogs deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous in the central North Carolina, following our report on a five-year-old child mauled by a German Shepherd last December. After a series of information requests to multiple counties, we learned more about dangerous/potentially dangerous dog declarations. ‘Am I going to die?’: North Carolina family speaks out after 5-year-old daughter attacked by dog with violent history In Wake County, in 2023 through November 4, 2024, there have been nine dogs deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous. The county also reports more than 1,100 dog/puppy bites from 2023 to November 1, 2024. However, this data does not include Cary, Raleigh, Garner or Holly Springs Animal Control designations.  "I was actually going to declare a dog dangerous [when] a dog ran out of nowhere and attacked me on that one," Wake County Animal Control Supervisor Clarence Kinley said. "I was loading [another] dog on my vehicle and it bit me." Kinley said that, with the exception of extreme cases, a declaration is a multi-step process. First, there is a warning. Then, the dog is declared potentially dangerous. Finally, the dog is dangerous. A dog can be declared if it bites another domestic animal or a person.  "It's a bite, it's not severe. If it has two bites within a six-month period, then it will go to potentially dangerous," Kinley said. "Dangerous dog is if it has done severe damage to a animal or a person, meaning hospitalization and stitches, also death." County officials also said they do not notify neighbors if a dog is deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous. Permits are not required like they are in some other counties and they "don't maintain address information" in their dangerous dogs database. In Durham County, five dogs were declared dangerous and 58 potentially dangerous from 2022 to October 23, 2024. Some even live at the same address.  For people like Courtney Mata, the fight for information is personal. She addressed the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners in October after a German Shepherd mauled her five-year-old daughter last December. The dog was declared potentially dangerous by the county after it bit another child in 2020.  The dog was supposed to be kept under an up-to-date permit, but the county confirmed the permit expired in November 2022 and was renewed. One of the dog's owners euthanized him after the attack on Brenna just over a year later.  Now, Mata and her husband are advocating for changes, including harsher punishments for reckless dog owners. They say they would like to see required registries of dogs declared dangerous or potentially dangerous by the county because they had no idea a dog that lived so close to them was capable of attacking their daughter so badly, that tissue was hanging out of her leg.  "The system we have right now relies on owner honesty," Mata said. "That's a broken system. In this case, that didn't happen." When asked in October about how many dogs it has deemed potentially dangerous and dangerous in the last two years and their addresses, the Cumberland County Animal Services director said, "We cannot provide this information as our database does not provide a list of dogs deemed by date with their address and it will be unduly burdensome to attempt to compile this information from individual records." The director also said they do not notify neighbors of dogs deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous, but the agency will "respond to any citizen request for a list of incidents related to a particular address or owner". Said Mata, "I want everyone to try and envision if that was your child and what you would feel. What you would like to see done if your child was injured like that or, heaven forbid, if they killed your child?"