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Neighbors of the supermodel are complaining that
they can't walk near the Elizabethan mansion she shares in the English
countryside with husband
Matthew Vaughn without being accosted by
Schiffer's two dogs, BBC News reported Friday.
Police in the county of Suffolk have said that they will speak to
Schiffer about the nuisance allegedly caused by her German shepherd,
Oscar, and wolfhound, Roxy. Locals reportedly complained that the dogs
are "running wild" on a public walkway located on the Bury St. Edmonds
property.
"We have had complaints, in the main via the
parish council, of concerns over dogs roaming free on public footpaths,"
Jane Austen, er, a police spokeswoman told the BBC. "Arrangements are in
hand to meet the owners of the dogs to discuss these issues.
"We received one complaint of a dog causing injury to
another dog in December 2005. Although not a criminal matter, all
parties were spoken to at that time and suitable advice given."
According to Britain's Daily Mail, Oscar nipped a
postman in the arm, which led to a threat of no more mail delivery
service, and Roxy mauled a Jack Russell terrier. The tabloid said that
Schiffer and Vaughn paid the Jack Russell owner's veterinary bills after
the dog needed surgery.
"The dogs are still getting
out on their own and can be quite aggressive and intimidating when they
run up and bark," a villager who wished to remain anonymous told the
Mail. "The wolfhound is worse because it is the size of a small
pony and she has got far more frightening as she has grown up."
She said that she had written the family to complain and
received a note of apology from Vaughn, but that Roxy is still up to her
old tricks.
"When I went down the path again I had the
same problem with the wolfhound trying to bite my dog. I wrote a second
letter to the house, but I got no reply. A lot of people have now been
put off using this path because they are worried about the dogs. I
certainly don't like going there any more."
"The
household have since taken various precautions with the dogs to ensure
public safety," Schiffer's rep said in a statement regarding the
neighbours' complaints. "This has included sending the dogs for
re-training and keeping them in an enclosed area."
Although David Copperfield may have been able to make this problem
disappear, Schiffer got hitched to Vaughn, a film producer, in 2002 in
the picturesque village of Shimpling. The couple have been living in
pastoral bliss with Oscar, Roxy, and their two children, three and a
half-year-old Caspar Matthew and 22-month-old Clementine. They divide
their time between their country estate and a house in West London's
Notting Hill.
Schiffer, 36, who kicked off her super
career as a Guess? jeans girl in the early 1990s and went on to grace
more than 900 magazine covers, showed up in the 2003 film Love
Actually as
Liam Neeson's dream woman and had a cameo on Arrested
Development.
Vaughn directed the jaunty U.K. caper
flick Layer Cake in 2004 and produced two of
Guy Ritchie's better
films, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as
well as one of his lesser ones, Swept Away.
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