Animal Country officials are investigating the savage attack this past weekend in which by two pit bulls attacked and killed a tiny poodle mixed breed dog as it was being walked by its owners in Canyon Country.
“The incident is under investigation,” Don Barre, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control, told The Signal Wednesday.
Juan Hernandez and his wife were walking their dog, Gumita, along Merryhill Street, west of Whites Canyon Road, when the attack happened.
“We do know that an incident happened on Merryhill,” Barre said. “A woman (Hernandez’s wife) was walking her dog when another dog attacked her.”
“She (dog) was attacked by a pit bull/boxer mix,” the animal control officer said, describing one of the two attacking dogs.
The two dogs named in the attack remain in custody of their owner, Barre said.
The attack
“We were walking, my wife and I, down a street and I stopped to pick up after my dog,” Hernandez said.
“I heard something run behind me,” he said. “I turned and saw this black dog run straight at me. I had a little stick and I hit it, right in the mouth. It ran back to his house.”
The attack, however, didn’t stop there, he said.
“The dog got the other dog, a bigger dog, and they tried to attack me again,” Hernandez said.
While one of the dogs attacked Gumita, the larger of the two dogs attacked Hernandez.
“They killed my dog,” he said, noting he was five feet from the attack of his dog as he fought to fend off the other dog.
Hernandez was bitten on the hand, he said.
“A neighbor, she saw the whole thing. It was very bad. She said ‘Call Animal Control.’”
Both Animal Control and the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station were contacted about the attack.
The attack comes on the heels of other dog attacks reported to The Signal.
Other attacks
Less than a month ago, an FBI agent was walking his dog on Via Ott near Piazza Di Sarro near Golden Valley Road, when he and his dog were attacked by a pit bull being walked by a woman.
The agent, whose identity has not been disclosed, shot and killed the attacking dog.
An FBI investigation is underway into the lethal shooting of the dog.
“We have opened an investigation so I’m limited in providing specific details,” Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles, told The Signal Wednesday.
“We open an investigation whenever an agent discharges firearm,” she said.
In February, two dogs attacked and mauled a woman who had been walking her tiny Pomeranian in Bridgeport.
The injured woman was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital after being attacked by the dogs shortly after 3 p.m.
She suffered several puncture wounds to her arms, buttocks and hip from bites inflicted by the attacking dogs as she held her 8-pound Pomeranian over her head to protect the smaller animal.
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