Woman Is Bitten, Wants Pit Bull Killed

A Canoga Park woman attacked by a pit bull terrier as she walked on a residential street near her home was in good condition Thursday, but called for the dog’s destruction.

“My biggest concern is that they take this dog and put him to sleep,” Judy Russo said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a vicious animal.”

It was the latest in a series of pit-bull attacks in Southern California that have focused attention on the breed. In the wake of an attack on a Los Angeles animal-control officer in June, San Fernando Valley animal-control officers said the number of complaints about pit-bull attacks has doubled over last year.

Since 1983, pit bulls have been responsible for 20 of the 28 dog-bite-related deaths in the United States, the National Humane Society said.

Russo, 46, was walking with her husband, Robert, 54, and their German shepherd, Finnegan, in the 20000 block of Saticoy Street about 6 p.m. Wednesday when the terrier, named Chato, leaped on her from behind, she told police.

Bitten in Calf

“We didn’t even see it coming. It came from behind and, all of a sudden, it was on us,” said Russo. “He came at all of us and got me and then started wrestling with our dog.”

In the scuffle, Russo said, she was bitten on her left calf.

Just after the pit bull had attacked her and lunged for her dog’s neck, two men in a van drove up and grabbed the attacking dog, she said. “They had to pull him off by his back legs and tail,” Russo said.

Russo said she was treated at the scene by paramedics and later that night at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for a two-inch gash. The German shepherd was not injured.

The pit bull terrier belongs to Laura Soberanes, 31, who lives in the 19900 block of Saticoy, just three blocks from the Russos. She said that, when it attacked Russo, the dog had escaped from a fenced yard where it is usually kept. The two men who retrieved it were her husband and brother-in-law, Soberanes said.

She said her dog had never attacked anyone before.

“He is actually very vicious with dogs. I can’t deny it,” Soberanes said. “But my family plays with him all the time. He’s very nice with people.”

Suspects Provocation

She suspects Russo may have somehow provoked the dog, perhaps by pulling it away from her dog or kicking it. “It’s hard to believe he did it,” she said. “Maybe he turned around and pinched her with his teeth--if they grab you, they lock their jaws and won’t let go.”

The Department of Animal Regulations has decided that the attack was not serious enough to justify killing the dog, but warned that it must remain penned in its owner’s yard and will be destroyed if it attacks again, Soberanes said.

Said Russo: “He attacked with no provocation at all. If that’s not considered vicious, I don’t know what is.”

Soberanes said she expects to pay Russo’s medical bills and plans to keep 2-year-old Chato locked.

“I don’t want any trouble, and I don’t want my dog to die. I love him very much.”