Third Dog Attack At Same Residence, Second Against Same Person Within Past Year

A housekeeper has sustained personal injuries in a dog attack at a home in northwest Fresno, California. Fresno’s KFSN-TV reported that it was the third incident involving a dog at the same house this year.

The homeowners are already the targets of a lawsuit filed after an incident in which a boy was badly bitten in April. Now the family’s housekeeper has been hospitalized after police say she was attacked by two dogs for the second time in a two month period.

According to SPCA spokeswoman Beth Caffrey, the homeowners refused to surrender the dogs, so the agency attempted to obtain a warrant to seize the dogs involved in the December 23 incident, but a judge denied it.

The SPCA and police were outside the home for hours on the day of the incident as officers investigated what they said was the third dog bite incident to occur at the residence within the past eight months. Police said that in this particular incident, a housekeeper was standing on a step stool to wash windows when a pair of English bull terriers charged her.

Police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said that the dogs “pulled on her from her ankles” before biting her ankles and pulling her off of the step stool. The dogs then began to attack her on the ground.

The 61-year-old woman was bitten on the face, arm, and legs. Police Sgt. Richard Mendoza said “the wounds could be considered pretty severe,” noting that was bleeding profusely and required treatment.

The housekeeper told police that it was the second time within two months the dogs had attacked her.

In the suit filed in the April incident, a pit bull allegedly attacked a 12-year-old neighbor. The family said the boy jumped a fence to retrieve a ball and was attacked by the dog, leaving the child with severe scarring to his face.

Police said the owners have not been cooperative following the latest incident and in fact, animal control officers do not know the whereabouts of one of the dogs, saying that one of the owners took it away from the house.

Maintaining a vicious dog is against Fresno’s municipal code, but KFSN-TV reported that the city attorney’s office is not prosecuting the violations due to budget issues.