The attack left Virginia LoRusso, 68, her with two broken legs, a broken ankle and a severely shredded left calf. She was in her front yard watering her plum tree when she says her neighbors 70-pound pit bull named "Gus" and 40-pound Queensland heeler named "Shane" jumped the fence and attacked her.
LoRusso's granddaughter arrived at the house before the paramedics did.
"She was screaming, my son was screaming," says Tisha Shoemaker. "She was just in so much pain so I had to go back in the house to get more towels and wrap some of her leg up again with the piece of flesh that was hanging off because it was bleeding."
LoRusso has been complaining about these dogs for months. The owners of the dogs would not comment.
The woman had her eight-year-old great grandson with her at the time of the attack, but told him to retreat to her house and call for help.
"Do not come off the porch," said Virginia LoRusso. "At the same time I'm yelling at my neighbor please come get your dogs off of me they're going to kill me! That was my routine the next couple minutes just repeating that over and over."
Butte District Attorney, Mike Ramsey, arrested the dog's owners: Chic Gordon, 54, from Palermo and her son, Ruben Cambra, 32, from Oroville.
A separate warrant was also issued for Theodore Scherbenske, 55, from Oroville, for helping Conceal a Felony for his part in taking the pit bull away from the scene of the attack to conceal it from authorities.
Ramsey said the crime of Allowing a Vicious Animal at Large requires the dog's owners or those having custody or control of the dog to know of its vicious propensities and not keep it confined with ordinary care.
Authorities claim the pit bull was known to be vicious and was in fact referred to as a "guard dog" by Gordon. Ramsey said the fence around Gordon's property was insufficient to hold the pit bull as evidenced by prior escapes and the involved attack.
The dogs are out of quarantine and are being held at Butte Animal Control in Oroville until the court decides of what to do with them.
Virginia LoRusso has a skin graft surgery set for Friday.
NOTE: Virginia LoRusso and her family claimed that they filed 8 to10 complaints about the pit bull that lives next door to but Animal Control says that's not the case.
The LoRussos also claimed that owner of the pit bull, Chic Gordon, say that they have not been taking care of their out of control animals for quite some time. They have seen the dogs kill their pet goats and did nothing about it.
"I talked to the Animal Control officer and told him 'what's it going to take to get these dogs out of here?'," Carl LoRusso said. "'Is somebody going have to get mauled?' and sure enough that's what happened."
Chic Gordon has appeared in court five different times since 1992 that are all based on dog-related issues.
According to the Animal Control, the LoRusso's did not file 8 to 10 complaints about their neighbor's pit bull. Linda Haller, Program Manager at the Butte County Animal Control, says that [they] only filed up to 3 times.
(KRCR - June 7, 2012)
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