On the afternoon of Aug. 31, Joseph Marshall Thompson took his daughter's dog, Roscoe, to his favorite playground and ball fields near Oregon Ridge Park -- which they've gone for the past 13 years -- but something didn't feel right.
"He was my buddy," Thompson said through tears.
Thompson said he sensed danger after spotting what he believed to be three pit bulls running around without a leash. He told Baltimore County police that he stayed in his car that afternoon until the dogs' owner put them into her vehicle.
When Thompson opened the back door of his car to let Roscoe out, the three dogs charged him, according to a Baltimore County police report. Police said Thompson was knocked to the ground and bitten and clawed on both hands and legs as he tried to cradle his daughter's dog in an effort to protect it.
"As soon as I sat him down, these three dogs were on top of me, knocked me over and he started to fight back, but they just ripped him apart," Thompson said.
Authorities said the dogs attacked the schnauzer, tearing its windpipe and biting into its spine and breaking several of the dog's ribs and damaging its lungs.
"What they found was the ribs weren't just broken, they were floating and his thorax was also broken and floating," said Thompson's daughter, Cindy.
Thompson said he considered Roscoe the equivalent of a grandson.
"I'd watch him every day from 7 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock at night, five days a week," Thompson said. "He's a dog, I know, but he had a vocabulary. He knew (that) when 4 o'clock came, it was snack time. He knew at 12 o'clock, it was snack time. He was house broken in one, two days."
Police said the owner of the dogs eventually retrieved her pets. Thompson said he told the woman he was going to a veterinarian for help, but the woman never showed up to check on Roscoe. He said he hasn't heard from her since.
"I want this lady caught," Joseph Thompson said.
"I want this woman found and I want the dogs found," Cindy Thompson said. "I think that justice needs to happen here, and I think she needs to be accountable for what has happened."
Thompson said he might have to get rabies shots if the dogs aren't located and tested. Roscoe was taken to an emergency animal hospital, where the dog died from its wounds.
Baltimore County police said the dogs' owner is a Caucasian woman in her 20s with light hair who's about 5 feet 4 inches tall and 130 pounds. They said she was driving an older-model, faded dark blue vehicle that looks like a four-door hatchback.
There are no security cameras in the area, and there were no witnesses. Police said they consider this a serious public safety concern.
The Thompson family and police are asking anyone with information about the incident or the owner to call the Baltimore County Police Department's Cockeysville Precinct at 410-887-1820.
(WBAL - September 15, 2011)
