According to KTVU.com, San Jose residents, Lorenzo Garcia, 27, and Jesus Guzman, 29, were arrested in connection with the attack on an animal care officer on November 3. They were arrested under a California law that applies to owners or caretakers who let their dogs out of custody, resulting in great harm or death. The dog owners are facing charges stemming from a law enacted a few years ago after a San Francisco woman was killed by two dogs running loose.
According to police spokesman Sgt. Ronnie Lopez, the attack happened at about 7 a.m., after the dogs broke out of a nearby home and made their way to a house in the 2300 block of Pentland Way. The homeowner called police to report a vicious animal and police responded, along with a city animal care officer. As the animal care officer entered the home’s backyard to try and contain the dogs, according to police, both dogs attacked her. A police officer shot and killed one dog and wounded the other while attempting to rescue her. San Jose fire Captain Barry Stallard said the dogs were extremely aggressive and officers had to fire 11 rounds before they were incapacitated.
Julie St. Gregory, a San Jose animal care spokeswoman said that the second dog was euthanized later on November 3. The dogs, named Chief and Sharkey, were a mix of pitbull and American bulldog. Neither of the dogs were neutered. St. Gregory blames the owners. She said, “If you’re going to get these dogs you need to neuter them, you need to train them and you need to keep them confined. They can be dangerous.”
St. Gregory also stated that last year the dogs’ owner was cited five times before the incident occurred after the city received six complaints about the dogs.
The animal service officer suffered nine bites, some of them very severe. She was released after receiving many stitches. The officer was bit in the arms, legs, buttocks and hips before the dogs were controlled. The officer was taken to a hospital and will require surgery. Fire Captain Stallard said that the dogs took a sizeable chunk of flesh out of the officer’s right arm but he was relieved that the dogs did not bite her face or neck. “She was fighting them, kicking them, trying to fight them with her baton,” he said.
The dogs bit the officer in the arms, legs, buttocks and hips before they were controlled, Stallard said. The officer was taken to a hospital and will require surgery, he said. While the dogs took a sizeable chunk of flesh out of the officer’s right arm, Stallard was relieved that the dogs did not bite her face or neck.
The homeowner told officers he usually keeps the sliding door to the backyard open in the mornings, but it happened to be closed Tuesday, Stallard said. The homeowner also stated that he was about to feed his 6- and 8-year-old kids breakfast and those dogs were jumping against the sliding door. Stallard stated “”Those kids would have been torn to pieces.”
