TEXAS -- Two miniature ponies that were attacked by a pair of Rottweilers were being treated at a local equine hospital Friday.
Doctors said one of the horses was in stable condition, and the other, which lost an ear in the attack, was in guarded condition.
The biggest threat to the animals was the risk of infection, doctors said.
The ponies, Sampson and Twinkletoes, were given to two little girls as Christmas gifts. They were attacked in the back yard of a home near the Farmer’s Market in north Houston.
Berto Aparicio, who bought the animals for his daughter and his girlfriend’s child, said the dogs burrowed under the fence to get to the ponies.
"They were their Christmas presents," said Aparicio. "Our fence in the back is secure. I never would have expected those dogs to break through there. The thought never even crossed my mind."
Aparicio said the Rottweilers belonged to a neighbor.
When the dogs attacked, witnesses said the ponies panicked and ran through a fence into the front yard of the home, but the dogs cornered them and attacked.
Both ponies were badly injured, and Twinkletoes lost an ear.
"There were some guys telling us they seen it, that they were throwing rocks," said Roberto Torres, who lives in the house where the attack happened. "But they couldn’t help because the gates were locked."
"They’re pretty bad," Aparicio said. "I mean, one of them’s missing an ear."
Workers at a nearby business say they’ve been frightened by the Rottweilers, who sometimes bark loudly at people walking down the street.
The horses were loaded into the bed of a pickup truck and taken to the equine clinic on Thursday.
The two girls, aged 7 and 9, each got one of the ponies as a present on Christmas Day. Aparicio said, if the ponies survive, he will to move them to a plot of rural land where he lives.
(KHOU - Dec 29, 2011)
