“It could have been worse,” he said.
While walking to the mailbox on Chaparral Drive Tuesday morning with his dog, Otto, Bill heard a commotion behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see a neighbor’s three pit bulls running at him. Bill’s wife, Nila, had been out walking too, but had gone home with their other dog, Fritz.
“When you see three pit bulls coming at you, you know you’re in deep trouble,” Bill said. He said he knew the pit bills were after Otto, a gentle Lhasa Apso.
“I tried to pick up Otto to set him on the fence, but before I could, they were on me,” he said. “I went down and one of them had Otto in his mouth.
“I yelled, ‘Somebody help me, help me!
“Two or three people stopped and honked their horns but didn’t get out of their cars.
“Then Gracie came, bless her.”
Gracie Toval, the Lilienthal’s neighbor on Chaparral Circle, was sitting on her patio talking on the phone when she heard the commotion.
“I heard people screaming, dogs barking, like when there’s a pack fighting,” said Toval.
“A couple of cars were honking their horns, but no one got out of their cars to help this man. Nobody would get close to the dogs to help him out so I said, ‘I’m going to throw rocks at those SOBs.’”
She picked up rocks and began pelting the attacking dogs.
“I didn’t want to hit Mr. Lilienthal, so I hit the dogs in the hind end,” Toval said.
At that point, she thought she was about to be attacked too.
“One of the dogs stopped and looked at me, and I froze,” she said.
Two of the pit bulls — females — ran off, but the third, a male, continued its attack.
“Gracie handed me a rock,” said Bill. “The pit bull wouldn’t let go and I kept hitting him, hitting him. Finally he had enough and he turned me loose.
“If that lady (Toval) hadn’t come, I don’t know what would have happened. Maybe they would still be eating on me.”
“Thank goodness they didn’t kill that little dog,” said Toval, “but they sure did a job on that puppy. They really chewed him up.”
When the dogs ran off, other people came to Bill’s aid, one handing him a damp towel to clean up Otto, another with hydrogen peroxide to clean Bill’s wounds.
Police officers were at the scene in minutes, as was animal control officer Joe Macias, who captured two of the dogs. One of the females escaped, ran onto Interstate 15 where it was hit by a vehicle and killed.
Bill has treated by Mesquite Fire and Rescue personnel, and later drove himself to the hospital where he received stitches in his face and hands. Otto was taken to the veterinarian for treatment of multiple wounds and extensive bruising.
Nila said despite the injuries, she and Bill are grateful the outcome wasn’t worse.
“Bill was very fortunate,” she said. “Those dogs could have taken his ear off.”
“God was looking after the two of us,” said Bill.
Nila said she was told the male pit bull knew how to unlatch the front door of the house, and so it was kept locked, but someone had left the door unlocked and the dogs escaped when Bill and Otto walked past.
Toval said she had often seen the pit bulls being walked, and was concerned.
“It was something that I knew it was going to happen,” she said. “I didn’t know where or when, but I knew someone was going to get hurt. It could have been a child, a little child walking to school with no one around him.”
The Lilienthals say they know the owners of the pit bulls are going through an ordeal.
“They are really sorry,” Bill said. “They have been over here, sent flowers. They are really concerned. We feel sorry for them.”
The pit bulls’ owners were issued a citation for three counts of allowing a dog to run at large, and Animal Control declared the pit bulls dangerous dogs.
The male pit bull was put down by Animal Control, but the owners, if they choose to keep the third dog, will be required to apply for a permit under the city’s dangerous animals ordinance which requires extensive insurance and periodic checks to see that the dog is securely contained.
Otto spent two days at the veterinary hospital for treatment of serious gashes and other injuries.
“He has bites all over and the vet say there isn’t a place on his body where he wasn’t bruised,” said Nila.
Normally a gentle and affectionate dog, Otto was still hiding under furniture two days after the attack and snapping at anyone who tried to pick him up.
During the interview, Bill was able to entice Otto closer to give him a treat and some gentle stroking.
“He’s still in shock,” said Bill, a retired Navy veteran.
Though shaken by the ordeal, the Lilienthals are grateful for the concerns shown by neighbors, and relieved that injuries weren’t worse.
“We are truly blessed,” said Nila.
Bill said he hadn’t heard much of pit bull attacks until he was a victim.
“I’ve heard more pit bull stories in the last three days than I have in my whole life,” he said.
One of those stories came from Mesquite resident Natalie Hafen who was attacked June 12 while taking her Shar Pei dog for a Sunday evening walk between her home and the Mesquite Library.
“I was walking by a house where a gentleman was sitting on his steps,” said Hafen. “He got up to go inside, and when he opened the door, a pit bull ran out and attacked my dog.”
She tried to fend off the attack and protect her dog.
“It wouldn’t stop,” she said. “I was beating on the pit bull, trying to unlock its jaws.”
Her screams brought neighbors, but the man, who was not the owner of the dog, seemed to be afraid to get involved in the fray.
“Finally my dog’s collar came off,” Hafen said.
She used the collar and leash as a weapon to try to beat the pit bull off.
“It finally let go, and came back again,” she said. “I finally got my dog’s collar around its neck, and then the owner came.”
Hafen’s Shar Pei required surgery, and her veterinary bills have come to about $2,500. She went to surgery for treatment of puncture wounds in her left hand, and more serious wounds in her right hand. Those wounds were left open in case of infection.
“I was without hands for a while,” she said. “I’m just now getting to the point where I’m not aware of them, where they don’t hurt.”
She said she was told that when the offending pit bull was taken to the pound for quarantine, it continued to be aggressive, trying to attack dogs on adjacent pens. When it was fed, it would grab the dish and shake it.
Hafen said she would like to see pit bulls outlawed in the city.
“They’re an aggressive dog; they’re kept locked up all the time, so when they do see other dogs, they attack,” she said.
“I’m an animal lover, and when I have had dogs charge, I would stomp my foot, say ‘Get back,’ but nothing was stopping this dog. I guess the only thing that can fight a pit bull is another pit bull.”
She said she thought about what would have happened if she had taken her grandchildren with her on that walk in June.
“One of these times it’s going to be a little kid that gets ripped up,” she said.
She said the attack was made her a little paranoid.
“Now I’m afraid to go for a walk and I carry pepper spray,” she said. “When I hear something coming, I’m afraid it’s a dog.”
She said people should be able to walk in safety.
“I’d like to get the word out to people that these things happen,” she said.
A pit bull is not a specific breed, but one with characteristics of breeds like bull terriers and Staffordshire terriers.
Some jurisdictions prohibit or restrict the ownership of pit bulls, including the province of Ontario in Canada which passed a law in 2005 banning the breeding and importing of pit bulls, and placed restrictions on existing dogs.
According to the animal services website of Florida’s Miami-Dade County “it is illegal in Miami-Dade County to own or keep American Pit Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, or any other dog that substantially conforms to any of these breeds’ characteristics.”
Denver has one of the toughest pit bull laws in the nation, and within months of enacting the law in 2005, had impounded 380 of them, putting 260 of them to death.
(The Spectrum - Sept. 22, 2011)
