The woman, Kristie Arredondo, 39, of Topeka, credited two strangers who saw the attack unfolding and rushed to help her.
The incident occurred about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 28, when Arredondo was walking her two dogs on leashes on the east side of the 2400 block of S.E. California Avenue.
Arredondo, who lives just north of the school, said she was horrified when two pit bulls charged from across S.E. California Avenue.
The pit bulls then began attacking her dogs: Gracie, a rat terrier mix, and Rya, a boxer-shepherd mix. Both dogs are about 6 years old.
Gracie, the smaller of the two dogs, got the worst end of the attack, sustaining a deep gash to her midsection. Her left ear was nearly ripped off.
“They got her on her back,” Arredondo said. “I couldn’t really tell how bad it was. It all happened so fast. I heard all this barking and growling.”
Arredondo said she believes Gracie’s life hung in the balance until a car pulled up to where the attack was taking place.
“A guy who was a passenger jumped out and helped me,” Arredondo said. “He kicked the pit pulls and got them off Gracie.”
Another man came running from across the street with a broomstick in his hand.
Arredondo was so shaken up all she could do was run with her dogs still on their leashes. Several times, she said, she looked back, only to see the man with the broomstick making sure the pit bulls didn’t return to chase after her.
When she arrived at her home about five blocks away, Arredondo said she reported the incident to animal control officers.
When she examined Gracie’s injuries, she took her to an animal hospital in west Topeka, arriving around 4:30 p.m. that Sunday.
Surgery was performed on Gracie, and she was released about 9 p.m. that night.
“As soon as she got home,” Arredondo said, “she wanted to go out for a walk again.”
Rya, meanwhile, staved off the attack and was uninjured.
Arredondo said her children, Marissa, 19, and Marcos, 11, were relieved when Gracie made it back home after surgery. Gracie is doing much better and is back to her spunky self, Arredondo said.
Several days after the attack, Arredondo was still reluctant to take her dogs for a walk because of the trauma inflicted on them — and herself — by the pit bulls.
“I never saw them before,” Arredondo said of the pit bulls. “What’s worse, the animal control officers couldn’t find them.”
Arredondo said she wanted to thank the people who came to help her, crediting with saving her dogs’ lives.
Long a source of controversy, pit bulls remain a popular breed for many dog owners.
Many people maintain their pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other breed and become aggressive when they are trained to have such a behavior by their owners.
Arredondo said she has seen many dogs running loose in her neighborhood in recent weeks. She said she doesn’t think pit bulls are necessarily more dangerous than other breeds.
Still, she is keeping her eye out for any other pit bulls she might see in her neighborhood.
“It could have been any kind of dog,” she said. “But if people have aggressive dogs, they need to control them and not let them run loose.”
Patty Burkholder, manager of code services for the city, said dog-at-large calls have been “holding steady” for the past year in Topeka.
She said by the time a person calls dispatch to report a dog running loose, the animal likely has disappeared from view, making it difficult for animal control officers to locate it.
When animal control officers are able to corral a dog, it goes to the Helping Hands Humane Society shelter. The dog’s owner must pay fines before getting the dog out of the shelter.
Burkholder stressed dog owners are responsible for maintaining control of their pet, either on a leash when walking it or by keeping it in a fenced-in yard or indoors.
(Capital-Journal - Nov 4, 2012)
