NEW MEXICO -- A 63-year-old man stabbed two pit bulls with a knife — and later shot at them with a handgun — on Wednesday, after they allegedly attacked him and his dog during their walk just north of Las Cruces.
It's the second high-profile dog attack in less than three weeks in the vicinity of the city.
The two pit bulls were euthanized after the attack because of the extent of their injuries, authorities said.
The pit bulls' owner, Chris Sanchez, 26, of the 2000 block of Avalon Drive in Las Cruces, was cited with misdemeanors, according to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department.
The 63-year-old, whose identity wasn't released by the sheriff's department, was walking his dog near Dalrymple Road and Trojan Lane around 7:45 a.m. when the two pit bulls attacked, according to county officials. The man defended himself with a pocket knife and stabbed the two attacking dogs.
The man then went to his nearby home and retrieved a handgun, which he used to shoot at the pit bills. However, it wasn't known whether the dogs were actually hit, according to county officials.
A county animal control officer later found one pit bull near the site of the attack. A city animal control officer found the other near Hoagland Road, according to the county.
The area where the attack happened is between North Valley Drive and Doña Ana Road, just north of the city of Las Cruces city limits.
Sanchez's home is near the city-county boundary, according to police.
Both pit bulls had been captured after roaming free on two separate instances in recent years, one of which happened earlier this month, said Dan Trujillo of the Las Cruces Police Department. The dogs were impounded by city animal control on Feb. 20, 2010, and May 2 of this year, Trujillo said.
"In this particular case, the two dogs appear to have escaped and were running loose, and from what we understand, this is not the first time," said Trujillo of Wednesday's incident.
Trujillo said the pit bulls' owner was cited both prior times for the loose dogs. There were no reports of aggressiveness during those instances, he said.
Injuries
The 63-year-old man had cuts on his right arm after Wednesday's incident, but said he wasn't sure if they stemmed from the dogs or his knife, county authorities said.
The man's dog was sent to a veterinary hospital because of its injuries.
And the pit bulls, after Sanchez relinquished ownership of them, were euthanized because of their severe injuries, said Kelly Jameson, Doña Ana County spokeswoman.
Also, though the dogs were up-to-date on vaccinations, the only way to test for rabies was for them to be euthanized, Jameson said. The dogs' bodies have been sent to a state laboratory for necropsies.
County officials said the pit bulls were micro-chipped.
Citations
Sanchez was charged with two counts of failure to restrain an animal and two counts of having a vicious and or dangerous animal, authorities said. Both charges are misdemeanors.
Plus, because one pit bull ran back into the city limits and was captured by city personnel, a fifth citation was issued by the Las Cruces animal control division, Jameson said.
Fatal mauling
A 15-month-old Las Cruces girl, Jazilyn Mesa, died around the start of the month after being mauled by her family's pit bull in their backyard. The incident happened off Stone Canyon Drive on the city's east side.
The incident sparked a heated public debate about pit bulls and possibility for breed-specific regulations. Some people blamed the breed's characteristics, and some claimed the problems are with negligent dog owners.
The dog that attacked Jazilyn was killed. Its body was sent to state officials for a necropsy.
Asked if the necropsy report in that case was finished, Trujillo declined to comment, saying the case is still pending.
A few days prior to the attack on Jazilyn, a 74-year-old Santa Fe man was reportedly attacked and killed by his own pit bull.
This weekend, a pit bull made state headlines by attacking and killing a small Pomeranian dog in front of kids at a soccer game in Roswell.
(Las Cruces Sun News - May 24, 2012)
