The Kane County state’s attorney’s office has filed a petition for a preliminary injunction against the owner of two pit-bull dogs that fatally attacked an NIU graduate student Nov. 10.

However, a hearing date has not been set because Kane County officials cannot locate the dog’s owner, Thomas Kennedy, 39, 35W518 Fabyan Pkwy., in rural Geneva Township.

Patrick Jaeger, chief of the Kane County state’s attorney’s Civil Division, said officials have been trying to serve Kennedy notice of the injunction since the petition was filed Dec. 1.

“If we don’t locate him (Kennedy), the hearing date will be set without him,” Jaeger said.

The petition consists of two complaints: one alleging that both dogs were involved in the fatal attack, and the other requesting that the dogs be declared a public nuisance by the judge and then be destroyed, Jaeger said.

In addition, the petition asks that Kennedy pay for the cost of holding the dogs and the costs of destroying them.

Kevin Cull, 25, an NIU student in analytical chemistry, died after the pit-bull attack due to loss of blood from internal and external injuries. Cull was scheduled to complete his graduate degree this December.

The dogs are in custody of the Kane County Animal Control authorities and are being kept at an Oswego veterinary clinic.