Chris Herron is seeking twice the $5,000 purchase price of Bojangles, who was to be a gift for his girlfriend, compensatory damages and attorney's fees.
On April 15, employees at Herron's Bar H Ranch saw two wolf-dogs in Bojangles' pen, one eating Bojangles and the other lounging nearby. A horseshoer shot the lounging dog to death, and the other fled. The second dog was captured the next day and euthanized by Riverside County Animal Services.
Herron said at the time that neighbors identified the dogs as belonging to Siordia, who lives about 3 miles away in a rural area south of Riverside. Siordia was cited for violating the county leash law.
Herron asked for compensation, but Siordia refused, according to Siordia and Herron's attorney, Ontario-based Cynthia Hafif.
"Mr. Herron didn't want to resort to this," Hafif said Friday by phone. He (Siordia) just wouldn't take responsibility."
Siordia, reached by phone Friday, said he refused to pay because he isn't sure that his dogs, Mangas Chochise and Trouble, were the attackers.
Siordia, speaking from Albuquerque, N.M., where his company is overhauling a power plant, said he wasn't able to positively identify the dogs from the pictures shown to him after they were captured.
His dogs had tags with his address on them, yet the dogs in the photos did not. He said he was not allowed to view the dogs' carcasses.
"I consider myself a very honest, honorable person," Siordia said.
"I'm not going to let somebody extort me just because they can't find somebody else who did it."
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| A wolf-dog eats the miniature horse it killed. |
Siordia said his dogs got out when a friend who was unloading construction equipment at his property on Idaleona Road failed to put the dogs in the kennel and left the gate open. Siordia was not home at the time.
Siordia acknowledged that Mangas Cochise previously attacked a neighbor's dog and that he paid a $5,000 veterinarian bill in that incident.
Siordia said he has owned wolf-dogs for 27 years and described them as intelligent and "not for everybody." He said Mangas Cochise and Trouble were both about 50 percent wolf.
"I want to go to court and let the judge decide what happens," Siordia said.
A hearing has been set for January in Superior Court in Riverside.
BREED DEFENDED
Laws regulating the ownership and breeding of wolf hybrids vary by state. Some, such as California, prohibit first-generation hybrids, which are the offspring of a pure wolf and a domesticated dog.
California law does not require a permit for the offspring of first-generation hybrids, although local governments are allowed to require permits for the animals or prohibit them.
Edye Marin, a Northern California wolf-hybrid breeder, said the animals don't deserve a bad reputation.
"Just like any other dog, they are a product of their environment and upbringing," she said by telephone. "It is like pit pulls. They have a bad rap."
Owners love wolf-dog hybrids and she makes sure the ones she breeds are comfortable around people, Marin said.
"My feedback from customers so far, 'This is the best animal I have ever owned. This is the smartest I have ever owned,' " Marin said.
Butch Harris, who has bred wolf-dogs for 24 years in Lufkin, Texas, said hybrids do not usually hunt to eat.
Harris also said hybrids aren't likely to stay put.
"It will look around and say, 'Why do I have to sit here, ain't nobody here,' " Harris said.
(Press Enterprise - June 13, 2011)
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