Woman and Min Pin Attacked by Four Dogs on West 48th Street

http://www.kvue.com/news/Woman-and-dog-attacked-by-four-dogs-in-Shoal-Creek-neighborhood-103091749.html
by JENNIE HUERTA / KVUE News
kvue.com
Posted on September 16, 2010 at 5:49 PM

A woman was walking her leashed dog along West 48th Street on Tuesday when she says four large dogs came at her at once.

The four dogs were unleashed and not wearing collars. It took several people to break up the ruckus that left the woman and her dog hurt.

Tracy Vaught’s miniature pinscher Pipsqueak proved to be no match for the two mastiffs, cow dog and pit bull that came at him while he was out for a walk on his leash last Tuesday.

“Those dogs raced, at the speed of the wind, and attacked,” Vaught says. “It wasn't like we were in their territory. They just came in and attacked.”

The four dogs, named Puck, Luna, Pluto and Spot are now quarantined at Town Lake Animal Center. One of them bit Vaught on the back side and bit Pipsqueak all over, but not before neighbors got into the fray.

“One man came out with a plastic guitar, and he's trying to beat the dogs away, and the dogs are not relenting,” Vaught said. “And somewhere in all of this, the owner showed up. They didn't respond to his voice commands. He literally had to carry the hundred-pound mastiff to his house.”

The dogs' owner, Victor Angelica, believes people's panic made the situation worse. He believes his dogs were just trying to play.

“The fact that there was a neighbor hitting my dogs with a guitar, and they were not attacking anybody when I got outside, tells me that they were not being aggressive,” Angelica said. “I know how they play.”

Paul Streetman, who saw the whole thing, disagrees.

Streetman says, “This was a full-on attack. This woman was screaming for her life. The dogs had taken her small miniature pinscher and had it in its mouth, and were thrashing it back and forth like a rag doll. She got bit bad in the process, by a large bull mastiff. It was a very scary and disturbing event to witness.”

Angelica's dogs had been in a fence, required by the City of Austin. He believes his cow dog Spot opened the gate to his backyard. Angelica will get his dogs back on Monday, to some neighbors', including Vaught’s, disappointment.

“I don't think that anyone around a neighborhood that is full of elderly neighbors and children and people walking their baby strollers needs to have dangerous animals,” Vaught said.

Vaught, an animal lover herself, says she doesn't want to see Angelica's dogs put down -- just controlled.

Angelica says he's planning to pay Vaught for her expenses, totaling about $1100. If an Austin Animal Control Officer had seen the dogs unrestrained, Angelica could have been fined up to $500 per dog, for breaking the city's leash law. So far, the City of Austin has not ruled the dogs dangerous. That involves a court proceeding. All of the dogs are vaccinated, but Angelica cannot take them home until he pays impound fees totaling more than $500.

Angelica says he’s looking for another place to live, perhaps in a less densely populated area.