Mauling Death of Boy by Dog Spurs Warning

A pit bull’s fatal mauling of a 14-month-old boy in his South Los Angeles home prompted city animal control officials Monday to issue broad warnings about what they described as a major public health and safety threat to the city.

“Dog bites to children are epidemic,” said Gini Barrett, a member of the city’s animal regulation commission.

Barrett said a survey last summer by the agency indicated that as many as 44,000 abandoned or runaway dogs roam Los Angeles streets. Many of them are considered vicious, and the largest number--as high as 40%--are believed to be pit bulls, she said. About 20% are Rottweilers and chows, which also are considered dangerous. “Having a pit bull in the home is like having a loaded gun. Would you leave a child alone with a loaded gun?” asked Jackie David, spokesperson for the Department of Animal Services.

The dog involved in the attack Sunday was a pet so loved by the family that he was nicknamed “Payaso,” the Spanish word for clown.

The grieving family of the toddler, Fily Araujo, said the dog had been acquired for home security.

The attack occurred Sunday afternoon at the little boy’s home, near Compton Avenue and 48th Place, relatives and neighbors said.

The boy’s mother, Lucy, and a family friend had just returned from a market and were unloading groceries when the attack took place, said a neighbor, Gloria De La Torre. The pet and Fily were romping in the backyard when the toddler hit the dog’s head playfully. The dog then attacked.

Paramedics responding to the 911 call found the toddler lying on his bed, his face and neck ripped open, said Firefighter Brian Humprey.

The boy went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and died from his wounds almost four hours later at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said Adelaida de La Cerda, a hospital spokeswoman.

Payaso, one of two pit bulls owned by Fily’s family, was seized by animal control officers and will be put to death. The second dog was removed from the house by a relative. Both dogs, about a year old, had grown up with Fily, said Silvestre Araujo, the boy’s grandfather.

The dogs were purchased, Araujo said, after the boy’s “parents had been beaten up” and robbed by an intruder who broke into their house. “They bought the dog for protection.”

Though Araujo said Payaso often appeared very calm with the boy and often played with him, the boy’s grandmother said she had a premonition about the dog.

Alejandra Bennett Martinez, Fily’s great-grandmother, said she was horrified when Payaso attacked and killed a dog that had wandered into his yard last January. She said she warned Fily’s parents about the dog’s mean streak.

“Be careful, I told them,” Martinez said Monday, breaking down in tears. “The baby could be next.”

Department of Animal Services officials said the attack sounded all too familiar.

Too often, said department spokesperson David, attack dogs lull owners into complacency by being affectionate with family members.

“One minute they will be very calm and friendly, the next minute they can turn on you and attack,” she said.

Barrett, who also serves as western regional director of the American Humane Assn., said attacks by pit bulls and other dogs are a problem nationwide.

Citing a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Barrett said dog attacks are considered a major health and safety risk to children, causing more medical problems than measles, mumps and whooping cough combined.

“More children end up in emergency rooms from dog bites than bicycles, skateboards, in-line skates and playground equipment all combined,” Barrett said.

Barrett said precise estimates for the city and county are not available because tracking and regulatory agencies were decimated by budget cuts.

The old Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation, since renamed Animal Services, was all but dismantled in the mid-1980s because of budget cuts and has never been restored.

Barrett said the city now has 40 to 43 animal control officers to serve 3.6 million residents and to respond to calls in a 469-square-mile area on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis.

The county, which used to record dog bites, stopped compiling statistics during its health-funding crisis in the early ‘90s, she said.

To get a handle on the problem, Barrett said the city agency last July and August did a spot survey and determined that on any given day, as many as 44,000 unowned dogs could be running loose in the streets, with an equal number of household pets let loose each day for short periods of time.

“If you took all the police off the streets, I think you would notice an increase in crime. We took animal control officers off the street and left only a few people manning phones, and we have a dog problem. It’s no surprise,” she said.

Barrett said pleas to restore the animal regulation budget in recent years have largely gone unheeded.

Jessica Copen, a press deputy for Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, said the mayor plans to increase funding for the agency this year.

“This is definitely a concern of the mayor. The budget is going to be increased,” Copen said.

The Board of Animal Services Commissioners is asking the City Council to significantly increase the penalty assessed owners of dogs who don’t neuter their pets.

Under a proposed ordinance, which sponsors hope to put before the council in late April or early March, the license fees for unaltered dogs would jump from $30 to $100. Licenses for altered dogs would remain at $10.

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Dealing With Attack Dogs

Some city officials consider pit bulls as dangerous as a loaded gun. They say the dogs are generally not good pets because they attack without warning and require special handling that few owners can provide.

Here are some safety tips on how to deal with attack dogs such as pit bulls:

* Never leave a small child alone with a dog.

* If attacked, never run, never scream; instead, try to back away slowly and not show fear.

* Don’t play aggressively with an attack dog.

* Never get between a dog and its food.

* Have your dog spayed or neutered. Dogs who have been altered are far less likely to attack.

Source: Los Angeles Department of Animal Services