Animal Services in Santa Cruz is looking for three dogs involved in two separate vicious dog bite attacks in April. On April 27th, two female pit bulls killed a poodle on Calabasas road in Watsonville. That same week, a man was bitten by a Mastiff-Rottweiler mix in Pleasure Point.

According to Mercury News, the owner of the poodle that was killed has said that she arrived home, and let the poodle out along with her German Shepard. She rushed out when the German Shepard started barking, and saw the two pit bulls surrounding the poodle’s body. The poodle’s owner, Jan Bricken, spoke to the owner, and saw the pit bulls in a pen outside his home. But apparently when officers arrived to talk to the pit bull owner, the dogs had vanished. The owner of the pit bulls, a 35-year-old woman, has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of a dog killing another dog. She also has been issued citations for a dog running at large. The pit bull owner could possibly be fined and could have jail time if convicted.

There have been no previous complaints about the dogs, and they have reportedly disappeared, but Animal Services have said that if they return, they will be put down. Neighbors have been notified to take care in case the dogs turn up again.

Meanwhile, Animal Services officers were also looking for a mastiff/rottweiler that bit a man on the 24th of April. The man, Aptos resident Bill Harris, had to be treated for a dog bite wound in his arm. The owners of the dog, Mark Hutchison and Melynda Vales have since disappeared, and Animal Services is looking for them. The dog will have to be quarantined for rabies, and failure to produce a dog for proper quarantine procedures is a misdemeanor. Owners of dogs are required to practice responsible dog ownership.

The American Kennel Club has tips to prevent your dog from attacking others.

• Dogs must be properly secured, and in an enclosure.
• When you let your dog run in the yard, make sure it is inside a fence or enclosure. The point is not only to keep the dog in the yard, but also to prevent other people, especially children, from approaching the dog.
• Dogs must be socialized right from the time they are brought home. Many dog bite attacks can be traced to under-socialized dogs who may feel threatened.
• Small children must never be left alone with a dog without adult supervision.
• Your dog must be on a leash when you are in a public place where they may be other dogs or people.
• Your dog enclosure must be strong enough to prevent him from escaping. Make sure that there are no holes in the fence that your dog can squeeze through.

California laws may allow for compensation in a dog bite case allowing you to recover your medical expenses. There may be more than one person who may be liable for your injuries. For instance, persons other than the owner of the dog who was looking after the animal at the time of the attack could be held liable. Besides, the owner of premises where the attack took place could have some liability too.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dog bites. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A pit bull attack in Anaheim on Tuesday night ended somewhat unexpectedly, when the husband of the woman who was being attacked stabbed the animal, and killed it.

Douglas Perry and his wife Vicki were walking their dogs near their residence when a black and white pit bull suddenly appeared on the scene. According to the couple, there was no warning of the attack, and all Vicki knew was that she was suddenly being dragged by the leash she had her dog on. When she saw the pit bull, it was biting into the throat of the couple’s Siberian husky breed. When she attempted to rescue her dog, the pit bull attacked her hand. Perry, who had the couple’s other dog on a leash, let it go so the dog could have a chance to escape from the pit bull. That turned out to be a big mistake because the pit bull ran after the smaller dog and attacked it. Perry ran to a neighboring house, and grabbed a kitchen knife. He ran back out on the street, and stabbed the pit bull in the chest a couple of times. The pit bull died at the scene.

The couple was rushed to the hospital for treatment of their dog bite wounds. Vicki suffered a total of 8 wounds on her hands. The dogs were taken to a vet hospital where they were treated for multiple puncture wounds.

Police who arrived at the scene say that Perry did the right thing. The dog was extremely aggressive, and was attacking viciously. The owner of the pit bull had apparently dropped the animal off at the home of a friend the previous week. It had been leashed in a yard, and there was no information about how it had escaped from the yard. Meanwhile, the Perrys are feeling lucky that they and their dogs escaped what could have been a severe mauling by a pit bull.

Out of the thousands of dog bite attacks reported in US every year, a majority are caused by pit bulls. This breed of dog is also responsible for most of the fatalities that occur because of a dog bite attack. Pit bull lovers will tell you that these dogs are perfectly safe when properly trained, but the fact is that some breeds tend to be more aggressive and vicious than others. Studies have shown that pit bulls tend to be more aggressive than other breeds, especially when it comes to little children. These are hardly family dogs, and have no place around young children.

If a person chooses to keep and raise a pit bull as a pet, then he or she is responsible for any injuries arising out of the dog’s aggression. Owners of aggressive breeds are required to secure their dogs to prevent them from becoming a danger to innocent people. When a dog attack does occur, then the owner may be held liable for doctor and medical bills, as well as compensation for any pain and suffering caused. The Perrys can take the help of a dog bite lawyer to obtain compensation for their medical expenses and for their veterinarian bills that have exceeded $2,100 dollars. A dog bite attorney may be able to help the couple evaluate their options for compensation.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dog bites. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Dog owners in a south Vallejo neighborhood are living in fear after an unleashed and unrestrained pit bull mauled three pet dogs and injured a man in two separate dog attack incidents. 

The first dog bite incident took place about a week ago when Maurice Bacelis was walking his two dogs in their neighborhood. As Bacelis reports, a tan pit bull suddenly appeared and attacked the two dogs, a Yorkshire Terrier and a Labrador. While Bacelis tried to fend off the attack on his dogs, the pit bull was ferocious in its aggression. By the time the dog attack ended and Bacelis was able to drive the pit bull away, the Terrier had been eviscerated and was lying dead.  The Labrador had a good portion of his leg chomped off.  Bacelis also suffered injuries to his arm and leg in the dog attack.

Just an hour after this dog bite attack, another similar incident was reported in the same neighborhood. This time, the dog that was being walked by its owner was a Chihuahua-Labrador mix and the injuries were not severe enough to cause death.

More frighteningly for pet owners in the area, animal control officers who are on the lookout for the renegade dog, believe that it isn’t a stray, but a dog that is being reared in the very same neighborhood.  A stray isn’t likely to be so confidently aggressive towards others. A dog that’s familiar with the neighborhood, however, is prone to showing his dominance over other dogs in the vicinity by attacking them.

The suspected pedigree of the dog that has been involved in these dog bite attacks is also not too surprising. Pit bulls often feature in such incidents along with other aggressive breeds like Rottweilers.   Bacelis is furious. He rightly wants to know how an aggressive breed like that was allowed to roam the neighborhood free without a leash. 

It’s the obvious question to ask. Even more importantly, is the owner aware of his dog’s destructive escapades out of the confines of his home? Is the dog being confined under strict lock and key at all, or is there negligence involved which leads to the animal frequently heading out of its confines to terrorize the world outside.

It definitely seems like a tragedy just waiting to happen.  So far, the incidence of human injuries in these dog bite attacks in Vallejo has been minimal. Apart from a few injuries that Bacelis suffered; there have been no other injuries or attacks on humans in the situation.  But that might not last for long. 

Animal control officers in the area are acutely aware of the dangers that this situation poses and are heightening the efforts to trace the dog and its owner. Until then, dog owners in the area are being advised to exercise caution when faced with a strange and unrestrained dog.  Be calm, they warn, and if with a small dog, pick it up slowly and walk away.  We hope that the mystery of the dog is solved quickly before there is a serious dog bite attack to report.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dog bite attacks. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

13-year-old Daniel Decembre should be looking forward to his teenage years and boisterous times with his friends. Instead, the young boy can never visit friends, he has them come over instead. The looks of horror and fright on the faces of people around him when he steps out of the house have turned this child into a social recluse. To get to know Daniel, onlookers first have to get past the sight of his face, scarred from a pit bull attack, with scar tissue on one ear and the other one missing.

The attack happened at Ridgewood Park Elementary School five years ago. Daniel was waiting for an after school tutoring class, when a pit bull raced through the open gates of the school and made for a bunch of kids. Daniel was among them. The kids tried to escape, and so did Daniel, but he tripped and fell. Within seconds, the 50 pound dog was on him mauling his face. Teachers reportedly tried to chase the dog away, and used objects to hit the dog. Finally, one teacher managed to chase the dog away by hitting him with an umbrella. By then, the damage had been done. Daniel was in second grade at the time of the accident.

Since then, Daniel has had a total of five surgeries to correct the damage to his face, but still needs more work done. His parents say it will take more surgeries to get rid of the large lump of scar tissue on his ear, and reconstructive surgery to attach a prosthetic ear. He has trouble with the tear duct in his eye.

His physical scars are the kind that will be healed to an extent by plastic surgery, but the mental and emotional scars are too deep to ignore. Daniel can’t go out without making his father stand by the gate to see him off, and can’t hope for a normal reaction from people who see him for the first time. There aren’t too many kids that are willing to be friends with a boy who has what they cruelly call a “scar face.” And as Daniel takes his place in high school, taunts like this can be expected to become worse.

His parents settled a lawsuit with the Orange County School Board for $2 million, but under law, the school board only has to pay $200,000 unless the Florida state legislature approves the rest. The settlement has already been passed by the Florida Senate, but has yet to be approved by the Florida House.

Officials at the Orange County School Board have admitted that they settled because they feared that a jury would award a higher sum to Daniel based on his extensive injuries.

There’s no doubt about what the state legislature should do in this case - it should pass the settlement, so that Daniel’s parents have a way of paying for the very expensive facial reconstruction surgeries that the boy will need more of. The Orange County School Board will have to pay the remaining $1.8 million settlement if it does pass, and it’s only appropriate that they do so.

Whining that the school board is already financially stressed doesn’t help matters – the gates of the school were open at the time of the attack. This was a school that had complained many times about the presence of dangerous dogs in the vicinity. Why then did they leave the gates open? And why was no action taken by the school board regarding these complaints? If you knew that there were vicious dogs sniffing around your school, wouldn’t your priority be to make sure that the kids were safe? Basic common sense should tell you that the gates should have been shut.

We feel the anguish of Daniel’s family. This boy has been through a traumatic experience, and it’s high time that the family was compensated for their suffering.

If you have been injured in a dog attack, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.