The Chihuahua owner told police the larger dog grabbed her dog, Rizzo, and shook her "like a rag." Rizzo died on the way to an emergency vet clinic, police reported.
The incident happened three weeks ago at the dog park at Monticello and South Belvoir boulevards.
It's not unusual for fights to break out at dog parks, but police Chief Kevin Nietert said the incident was the first fatal attack since the park opened in 2005.
Ariel Shaw, 24, brought her dog and a cousin's husky, Sigma, to the park. Witnesses told police Shaw had no control over the husky, and that others separated the dogs. The witnesses said Shaw did not offer an apology after the attack.
Shaw called police at the suggestion of another park visitor, police reported. She told officers she had been sitting on a bench talking to a couple when she heard people screaming. She went to the area and tried to grab Sigma's collar, but the dog bolted. By the time she caught him, the Chihuahua and its owner were gone, she said.
Shaw also told an officer a witness told her the Chihuahua provoked the attack. The little dog had been biting and nipping other dogs.
Shaw is scheduled to appear Wednesday in South Euclid Municipal Court on a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge of dog park harassment. Neither Shaw nor Chihuahua owner Marianne Reeves returned phone calls seeking comment.
Nietert said he has declared the husky a vicious dog under a city ordinance. The designation is a civil action that requires the owner to buy insurance, muzzle the dog in public, post a warning on her property and imbed an identification microchip in the dog. The owner is appealing the finding.
The dog park is run by a private, non-profit group called Friends of the Ideal Dog Park, Off Leash (FIDO). The group did not respond to an e-mail request for comment sent through its website, southeuclidfido.org.
Amy Ryan, owner of Camp Bow Wow, a dog boarding and day-care facility in Highland Heights, said placing large and small dogs in a play area is asking for trouble, especially without knowing the temperament of other dogs.
"You've got to separate them by size," said Ryan. "I have four small dogs and if I took them to a dog park I wouldn't let them around a large dog. Dogs can be unpredictable. Even though it may be a sweet dog at home, it's not known how it's going to react to other dogs."
Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Sunny Simon, who founded the South Euclid dog park when she was on the suburb's city council, said the non-profit group is raising money to build a small-dog enclosure at the park.
"It's horribly sad for this little dog and the family," Simon said.
"Most of the time they (dogs) love it. They make friends and run in packs. But it's always a risk."
(The Plain Dealer - April 2, 2012)
