Never before had his parents given him permission to enter someone else’s property in this gritty neighborhood of mobile homes surrounded by fences, many with warning signs of no trespassing, or connoting “Beware of dog.”
Dylan knew there were dogs at his buddy’s house. He had pet their two pit bulls through the fence. They seemed friendly. They would lick his hand. The would let him pet them.
On Jan. 10, he let himself through the fence with one of the kids who lives at the residence, to go hook up the Playstation for them, and show them some of the games.
Dylan instinctively put his hands up to cover his face, as the dogs lunged at him; they backed off when one of the kids in the family approached them, yelling at them. He managed to run inside.
Dylan’s father, David, was at home when one of his neighbor’s children came knocking at his yard to inform him that “Dylan’s been bitten by our dogs.”
Mr. Newton and his wife, Rachel, had no idea that there were dogs on the property.
He came over to retrieve his son.
“It took me nearly five minutes to get on the property, because the dogs were barking” and menacing, Newton says. “They had to give me one of their tow chains to smack the dogs off with” so that he could approach.
The family called 911, which dispatched the Sheriff’s Department and medical personnel. Riverside County Department of Animal Services was also called, but did not come out — until the following day.
At the hospital, Dylan required 19 staples and 20 stitches to repair 13 lacerations. He had lost muscle tissue from his calf, and tendons had been pulled and stretched; his parents fear that Dylan may never regain full strength in his knee, and were advised that he may have to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.
Restless at home, Dylan is on pain medications and antibiotics, and is being home schooled until he is cleared to walk again.
David Newton is confused: he went to get a copy of the sheriff’s report, but there wasn’t one.
“They say that they were there to simply assist animal control,” Newton says, “but animal control wasn’t even there” to be assisted.
And, when an officer from animal services responded the following day to pick up the two pit bulls, which were not licensed and had no microchips, the officer claimed that he could not take them away unless someone paid for the service of doing so.
“We, the victims, paid $105 to have them take those dogs away, because the family didn’t have that kind of money,” Newton says. “We know they’re on welfare. We’re on disability — we don’t have that kind of money, either. It was Dylan’s idea to give them his old Playstation since he got a new Xbox, and we thought it would be OK to have him go show them how to hook it all up. They have six children in that house, and two dangerous dogs — and animal control was just going to leave them, because no one would have been able to pay $105?”
Newton is outraged.
The family stopped by the following day to check up on Dylan. During conversations with their family — and relatives of that family — the Newtons discovered that the dogs had been raised for dog fighting, which Newton says “is a chronic problem in this area.”
Another reason the dogs may have been there, Newton says, is because a man who lives at that property is allegedly a registered sex offender, which the man partially admitted to the Newtons, Newton said.
“You can’t quarantine dogs like that in a yard with six kids,” Rachel Newton insists. “That’s insane.”
“We never allow our kids to enter anyone else’s property out here,” she says. “There are too many drug users and child molesters. I had no idea they had pit bulls in their yard.”
Dylan seems relatively chipper.
“When they attacked, it didn’t really hurt at the time,” he says. “I think I was in shock. But, I’m a tough kid.”
At the time, he had been wearing his brand new $60 Levis from Kohl’s, his parents point out.
“Dare Devil Dylan,” as his parents have referred to him, wants to grow up to become a professional BMX racer. His right leg has a few battle scars from bike accidents and reckless activities he has engaged in since he was 3-years-old. He anticipates he will run around again soon.
The Newtons don’t anticipate they’ll recoup the money that they feel their neighbors should have been charged for.
But the mere fact that the Riverside County Animal Services Department seems willing to leave dangerous animals behind concerns Newton.
According to Riverside Animal Services Department spokesman John Welsh, at the time of day his department was called, there was likely only one or two standby officers available, and they cover a fairly wide region.
"Owners of pets do have rights to their animals," Welsh says. "If an officer deems an animal to be severely dangerous, they can have the owner sign the animal over to animal services and have it euthanized, but there are fees involved. Unfortunately, there are fees associated with everything."
Dogs that have no history of causing problems can be quarantined in their owner's yard, he says, but everything comes down to the seriousness of the animal's actions, and the discretion of the officer who responds.
"They have no money, I realize that. That's probably why they did this," Newton says. "We need to come up with a better way of handling things like this."
A representative from the Cabazon Sheriff's could not be reached in time for publication.
(Record Gazette - Jan 21, 2013)
