Dog Tased after 2 attacks in Brentwood

CALIFORNIA -- Two residents walking their dogs in Brentwood on Thursday were attacked by a pair of loose dogs, including one that was later Tased by police, authorities said.

About 9:30 a.m., 52-year-old Carolyn Wax was walking her small dog on the 4600 block of Nunn Street when she was accosted by a black Labrador retriever and what police had originally described as a pit bull but whose owner said is a mastiff-shar pei mix. Both dogs had escaped from a nearby yard, said Brentwood police Sgt. Mark Misquez.

One of the dogs - the woman didn't remember which - "bit her repeatedly" in the face, hand and ankle, Misquez said.

The same dogs also came across 46-year-old Reid Basso as he walked his small dogs on Hudson Drive. The bigger dogs began attacking Basso's dogs, and when the man tried to protect them, the mastiff-shar pei bit him in the calf, authorities said.

The victims suffered minor to moderate injuries.

Officers caught the Labrador, but Contra Costa County animal service officers were called to help when the mastiff-shar pei ran away, Misquez said.

Officers found the dog in a backyard and stunned it with a Taser when it charged them, Misquez said. An animal control officer used a noose to take it into custody.

Animal control officers are investigating how the dogs got loose and whether the owner will be cited, authorities said.

(SF Gate - May 2, 2014)