Hesperia residents Stephanie Preston and Carol Thomas said they were on a walk over the weekend on Bangor Road near the Hesperia golf course when two pit bulls escaped from the front yard of a home.
Preston said she was walking her Maltese-poodle mix, named Maggie May, along with Thomas’ poodle-mix Leroy and terrier Jenkins on Sunday night around 6:45 p.m. Preston said the walk is a nightly ritual for her, her husband, her parents, and Thomas, who walk the same route around the golf course.
“Across the street from the golf course, there’s a house with two pit bulls, and they always bark at us,” Preston told the Daily Press on Tuesday. “We expect them to bark, but we always stay on the other side of the street and we haven’t had a problem.”
Their problem-free streak ended Sunday night when Preston and Thomas said two pit bulls “just out of nowhere, with no warning” attacked Preston’s dog and Thomas’ poodle-mix.
“(Preston) saw the pit bull behind the fence, and next thing we know, the two of them were on us, ” Thomas said.
The duo said the pit bull owners ran out when they heard the commotion and attempted to pull the pit bulls off the smaller dogs. The dogs were eventually separated and the small dogs were taken to a veterinarian.
“We are usually done with our walk around 7:15 p.m.,” Preston said. “We didn’t get home until 11 p.m. that night.”
Thomas said that bystanders told them they had seen the dogs out and “knew (an attack) was going to happen.”
“The owners acknowledged the dogs had been out and that they couldn’t keep them in the yard,” Thomas said. “Those dogs have been out before; we’ve seen them.”
Maggie May sustained injuries to her leg and has a limp, as well as bite marks in her neck, Preston said.
Thomas said her dog, Jenkins, sustained worse injuries and is still in critical condition.
“He needed part of a lung removed,” Thomas said. “He is severely damaged. It will be days before we know if he will survive or not.”
A report was filed with Hesperia Animal Control, and a hearing is scheduled to determine what to do with the pit bulls. Preston said she is still unsure how the dogs got out, but she believes they jumped the fence, which she said was only four feet tall.
Meanwhile, both women said the vet bills are piling up, but the pit bulls’ owners have agreed to have their insurance cover the expenses.
Preston believes there is no rehabilitation for the dogs that attacked them or for the dogs that were injured.
“We just go on a little nightly walk and we should be able to do that,” Preston said. “(Maggie May) is my baby. Hopefully she is going to recover, but mentally ... I know this dog is going to be traumatized.
“I’m just glad we didn’t have our grandchildren with us. They’re 1 and 4 years old and we sometimes take them in the wagon. I couldn’t imagine if they were with us.”
Hesperia Animal Control officials said the dogs have not been quarantined because they did not bite a person. An Animal Control hearing officer will be reviewing the facts of the incident and decide what will be done with the dogs, officials said.
Authorities said the officer can decide to put guidelines in place to keep the dogs restrained in the yard, or, in extreme cases, can decide to euthanize the animals.
(Hesperia Star - Oct 7, 2014)
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