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ANIMAL WATCH - New information has been provided by Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control (DACC) Director Marcia Mayeda on December 10, 2024, to update and clarify a tragic incident which occurred two days ago, involving three dogs and resulting in the death of a five-year old girl in Covina, CA.
“DACC extends its deepest sympathy to the victim and her family,” said Mayeda. “This incident underscores the importance of always closely monitoring interactions between children and multiple dogs, and always ensuring the dogs’ owners are present to control their animals during these interactions”.
The initial media reports indicated that the girl was killed on December 8 by a Rottweiler and Rottweiler-mix. However, further investigation revealed that the dogs were not owned by her family, and only three (3) of the four dogs on the property were involved--a male Rottweiler, age 7; a mixed male Rottweiler-Weimaraner mix, age 6, and a female Doberman, age 4.
A female Weimaraner, age 10; was on the property at the time but was not involved and, according to video of the tragic event, is shown attempting to avoid the chaos.
All four of the dogs are spayed/neutered.
The Covina property where the attack occurred is rented to a man and woman. The child’s father is another tenant in the home, and the child visits her father every other weekend. She had previous interactions with and was known by the dogs, with no known reported previous incidents.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE BY COUNTY DEPARTMENTS
The 911 call first came into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (which is still in charge of the case) and alerted DACC. Both departments responded to the residence in Covina, where they discovered the four dogs in the backyard.
Video footage confirms that only three of the dogs present had participated in the attack.
THE ATTACK
The day of the attack, when the male tenant took his daughter to the backyard, the home-protection video shows she had a small bag of candy in her hand .It is not known if the bag was opened and/or if she had been eating it and if that might have attracted the dogs to her face.
For whatever reason, three of the dogs—the two males and the female Doberman—at first appeared to be licking her face and mouth. The father stepped in to make them move back, but she was knocked down by one of the dogs. This caused her to cry and scream, which triggered an immediate attack by three of the dogs.
The father immediately reached to pull the dogs off the little girl and throw himself on top of her to shield her while he continued to unsuccessfully kick and fight off the dogs to protect his daughter, which was not successful.
The video then shows him scooping her up in his arms and struggling against the dogs as he ran out of the camera’s frame.
The extent of any injuries incurred by the father is unknown.
VICTIM DID NOT SURVIVE
The girl suffered severe wounds throughout her body and extensive bleeding. She was rushed to a local hospital by ambulance, where unsuccessful attempts were made to revive her, due to an excessive loss of blood.
DETERMINATION REGARDING THE DOGS
“DACC is in the process of conducting further investigation into this incident,” Director Mayeda said. The owner has surrendered custody of all four dogs, but the uninvolved Weimaraner may be returned to her owner because she did not participate in the attack. The remaining three dogs are still in the physical custody of DACC, pending the completion of the State mandated 10-day rabies quarantine period.
(Phyllis M. Daugherty is a former Los Angeles City employee, an animal activist and a contributor to CityWatch.)
