The 57-year-old woman was treated at a local emergency room for puncture wounds, scrapes and abrasions, Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart said.
“I think they were going after the dog more than her,” Wisehart said. Her 2 1/2-year-old dachshund was killed in the attack in the parking lot of the Seven Hills golf course in the 1700 block of Pepper Tree Drive.
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| RIP little guy |
The woman’s injuries were to her hands as she tried to rescue her dog, according to Daryl Hitchcock, animal control supervisor for the Ramona Humane Society, which provides animal control services to the city of Hemet.
The dogs were loose at the time and their owners were not found, Wisehart said. One of the dogs got away, he said, but the other was captured. Hitchcock said the dog’s owner has not come forward and that the pit bull will be kept at the society’s San Jacinto shelter for at least another eight days.
The attack came on the eve of a decision by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors to instruct county staff members to draft an ordinance requiring that pit bulls and pit bull mixes to be spayed or neutered. Such an ordinance would apply only to unincorporated county areas and would not apply to the city of Hemet.
Pit bulls, and whether they pose a greater risk than other dogs, have been a point of debate since a 91-year-old woman was killed by two pit bulls in a Hemet motel room Feb. 8 and a 76-year-old San Jacinto woman was severely mauled by a pit bull while walking near her mobile home March 5. The San Jacinto woman later lobbied Beaumont City Council to strengthen a vicious dog ordinance in that city.
Critics of the breed contend that pit bulls have a more ferocious bite and tendency to attack people than other dogs, while pit bull owners have argued that other dogs can be just as combative but don’t get the same publicity and that the danger is related to how an animal is raised.
(pe.com - April 10, 2013)
