On New Year’s Day 2012, Mills went for a walk on farmland that has been in her family for more than a decade. She had played in the pastures and orchards as a child and still loved walking through them into her 60s.
But that day, three dogs came running toward her. She began walking back toward her home, but the dogs – boxers from a farm about a mile away – began nipping at her legs. They kept circling, getting more and more aggressive every step, and the nips became vicious bites that left gashes in her legs. She managed to stay on her feet, though, and believes that is what saved her.
Nearly three years later, she’s still getting treatment on her legs. She’s afraid to walk on her own property for fear of being attacked again. She didn’t know Juan Fernandez, the Modestan who died last week. Nor does she know his mother, Maria Fernandez, who survived. But she knows their moment of terror.
“I felt so sorry for them,” she said. “It was awful. Terrible. Terrible. I feel the dogs’ owner should be held accountable for their actions.”
With the investigation ongoing and the dog’s owner reportedly cooperating, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said he isn’t sure whether the owner will be charged criminally. The question you might have is, “Why not?” After all, those dogs got loose and viciously attacked two people who were in their own yard.
Ron Berman is a expert on dog bites and behaviors. He probes dog-bite cases and has testified more than 250 times in civil and criminal cases. Criminal charges, he said, “have a lot to do with the dog’s behavior prior to the incident.”
Did the owner know the animal displayed aggressive behavior in the past? Did the owner take reasonable precautions, such as fixing fences, to keep the animal secured? Did the dog receive training, or was it evaluated to determine whether it was likely to be aggressive?
“If the owner knew and didn’t do do anything about it, certainly criminal charges could be filed,” Berman said. “Murder charges would have to do with willful disregard. Conscientious disregard. Not giving a damn. That can get you murder two (second-degree) or manslaughter charges.”
Berman was involved in the civil case following the death of Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old San Francisco woman killed in her apartment building by a pair of very big Canary Island mastiffs in 2001. One of the dogs’ owners, Marjorie Knoller, was convicted of second-degree murder, and she and her husband, Robert Noel, were each found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and owning a mischievous animal that caused the death of a human being.
Later, Whipple’s family sued them for $1.5 million.
Liability and criminality aren’t limited to any specific breeds. Vicious dogs are vicious dogs, period. But pit bulls, Berman said, have earned a reputation of being more aggressive than other breeds. He sees them in everything from areas of low socio-economic status to Manhattan Beach, the upscale Los Angeles community where he lives.
“It used to be just inner-city,” he said. “But now you see pit bulls all over the place. People in multimillion-dollar homes have pit bulls. Just as much as they are feared for their strength and ferocity, they are loved for the same qualities.”
That stated, “pit bulls kill more than all other breeds combined,” Berman said. “Their victims have longer hospitals stays, more serious wounds and more expensive treatments. And if you have four pit bulls coming at you, even if you have a metal pipe, you’re still going to get hurt.”
What makes pit bulls attack? Berman believes it is ingrained in their DNA.
“They’re terriers, and the word ‘terrier’ comes from terra firma,” he said. “A terrier’s job is to dig into the land for vermin and dig them out. Most other dogs – like German shepherds – they don’t come after you. But when terriers come into your territory, they’re more dangerous because in their minds, it’s always their territory. If they can get out (of their enclosures), they’ll come after you.”
Which is exactly what Stephanie Mills experienced that New Year’s day nearly three years ago: another person’s dogs on her property, and she was the trespasser. Boxers, according to the American Kennel Club, are a breed with terrier lineage, though they don’t have anything close to the rap sheet of the pit bull breed.
Mills opted not to sue the dogs’ owner, Mike Assali, whose insurer covered her medical costs. Her wounds mostly have healed, though her legs still sting and she continues to visit a specialist because of the scar tissue. The emotional scars are more problematic. To this day, she will not stroll alone through the family’s orchards and fields.
“It’s the fear of being bitten again,” she said. “Other places, I could walk. But not here. When I hear dogs barking and barking, I don’t like that.’
And when she reads about others being attacked, she understands their terror and their pain.
“It brought everything back,” Mills said.
(Modesto Bee - October 18, 2014)
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