TEXAS -- When Micahela Garcia sees a dog, her fingers go numb and her heart starts to race.
And from far away, what seems to be a rash of black, tattooed script blankets her legs and arms. Up close, the tattoos are deep scars and slashes, reminders of why she panics when a dog is near.
Recently, she retold the story of her scars on the porch of her Southwest Side home to Animal Care Services Dangerous Dog investigator Joel Skidmore.
And from far away, what seems to be a rash of black, tattooed script blankets her legs and arms. Up close, the tattoos are deep scars and slashes, reminders of why she panics when a dog is near.
Recently, she retold the story of her scars on the porch of her Southwest Side home to Animal Care Services Dangerous Dog investigator Joel Skidmore.
Garcia, 25, was walking to the store in December when two pit bulls approached her at Callaghan and Seacroft. She stopped as she’d heard she should do, hoping they would let her pass.
Instead, the dogs encircled her and tore at her arms.
She called her attack “15 minutes of horror.” She screamed for help, but no one responded. Part of her wanted to give up, but she thought of her six children and screamed their names. Then the dogs’ owner arrived, warding the dogs away with a knife.
Her right side went numb and when she saw her cuts she went into shock.
Skidmore said she had one of the most severe attacks he’d seen.
“She did everything right,”he said. “She stood still and the dogs still attacked her.”
Garcia spent three days in the hospital. Sizemore obtained a warrant for the seizure of the two dogs. There was a serious bodily injury hearing at municipal court, where Sizemore offered his findings to a judge, Garcia testified and the owner of the dogs was fined.
The judge decreed that Garcia received bodily injuries and ordered the animals to be euthanized.
Garcia cried as she told Skidmore her family they could have been planning her funeral.
“I’m just suffering pain,” she said. “They tell me I’ll get over it, but it’s going to take awhile. I’m lucky to be alive.”
Skidmore knew her story as well as that of the owner of the dogs, having documented the details in ACS case files. In his line of work, he’s reviled by some and welcomed by many, but, he said he tries to do thorough investigations to the best of his ability.
“The City of San Antonio takes a hard stance against people doing what they’re not supposed to do,” he said. “God forbid one of these cases comes in — victim attacked by dog, victim dead.”
(MySanAntonio - July 1, 2012)
