Threats Drive Mauled Toddler’s Family to Leave : Attacks: Huntington Beach man who beat dog to death says he doesn’t know if he would do anything differently. His son required about 60 stitches.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  A man accused of beating a dog to death with a baseball bat after the dog mauled his toddler has received so many threatening phone calls that he moved his family out of their home Friday.

“They’re not asking about my son,” said Alan Roberts, 29. “He was a child model and now he’s got permanent scars on his face. He’s physically and emotionally a different kid. He’ll have to live with the trauma for a very long time.”

The incident also prompted a flood of phone calls to police Friday.

“We don’t get this many calls on many homicide cases,” said Officer Mike Kelly, who estimated that the department received more than a dozen phone calls from outraged residents. “Some are saying Roberts should be hanged and others are saying the dog owner should be whipped.”

About 5 p.m. Sunday, Roberts went into Java Jungle Coffee House at 6th Street and Pacific Coast Highway to use the restroom while his wife, Stacey Morton, and their 19-month-old son, Andrew Morton-Roberts, waited in the parking lot.

John Sanpaolo, who was sipping his coffee about 15 feet away, said: “All of a sudden, the dog attacked him on the face. His jaw locked on the little boy for about five seconds.”

Sanpaolo and others said the mother yelled, “Oh, my God,” and went to separate the dog from the toddler.

The boy “was covered in blood,” Roberts said. “I held him to my chest and took him to the hospital.”

Andrew received about 60 stitches at Huntington Beach Medical Center, mostly on the face, and was released, police said. The attack had left numerous cuts, including one from his forehead to his nose, Roberts said.

Sanpaolo and other witnesses said they saw Andrew petting the 8-month-old Akita-chow mix named Kaya for a few minutes before the attack. The Roberts said their son never saw the dog coming.

The dog had strayed out a screen door accidentally left open moments before the attack, said April Wyld, 28, the dog’s owner.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Wyld, who adopted the dog from a neighbor. “I just think there are other ways of dealing with this than beating the dog to death. I mean, shoot him if you have to. But don’t keep going on hitting him. He was alive all the way to the vet.”

An hour after the attack, Roberts drove back to the neighborhood, walked up to the dog tied to a chain-link fence and clubbed him 15 times with a baseball bat, according to police and witnesses.

“I was in total shock of what I was seeing,” said Jason Jones, who lives next to Wyld. “It was brutal.”

Wyld said she saw the man approach and she tried to unleash the dog but couldn’t get to it in time. But Roberts said Friday that she had succeeded in untying the leash and the 65- to 75-pound dog was approaching him.

Kaya was taken to a nearby veterinarian, where the dog was euthanized, Wyld said.

She understands the father’s anger, Wyld said, but not the beating.

“What if this was another kid hitting his kid?” she said. “Would he have hit that kid?”

On Friday, she was contacting animal rights groups to argue her case.

Roberts said all he thought about was his child’s pain. “I thought my son could possibly die,” Roberts said. “Up until that point, my life has been relatively quiet. I had no frame of reference; I was very confused.”

Asked if he would have done anything differently, Roberts said, “I don’t know at this time. I haven’t had time to resolve this within myself.”

Roberts has not been arrested. Police said they expect to complete their investigation by next week and turn the case over to the district attorney’s office, where a decision will be made whether to file charges of animal cruelty, Kelly said.

By Friday, Roberts said, he had received about 40 threatening phone calls. He disconnected his phone and moved his family to a relative’s home for the weekend.

Kelly said several people who called police argued that Roberts was needlessly cruel to the dog, which should have been turned over to county animal-control services and destroyed.

Others said pet owners should be more careful about letting pets “run wild.”

“Whenever you talk about kids and dogs, you’re dealing with a lot of emotions,” Kelly said.

Dr. Richard Evans, chief of veterinary services for Orange County, said about 3,000 to 5,000 animal bites and attacks are reported annually in the county. He added that tests show Kaya did not have rabies.

Evans warned the public to avoid stray animals.

“We find that there are seldom provoked attacks,” Evans said. “It may be innocuous. It could be just someone pulling on [the dog] or petting him. He may be scared and he doesn’t know, so he bites.

“I can’t stress enough to the public not to pet stray animals, and don’t let your dogs run wild.”

Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this story.