Three S. Lebanon Twp. family members charged in dog attacks on children

Three members of a South Lebanon Township family have been charged in connection with two dog attacks that seriously injured young children at the family’s home, the Lebanon County District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

County detectives and South Lebanon Township police charged Rebecca Hresko, 31, with aggravated assault of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, both second-degree felonies, and recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor. Her parents, Andrew Hresko, 70, and Debra Hresko, 61, were each charged with recklessly endangering another person.

All three live in the same household, where the district attorney’s office said the family kept seven large dogs in the home for years. The charges center on two of those dogs — Chip and Zeus — which prosecutors said all three defendants and police knew had a history of violent attacks on children.

The Aug. 10 attack

South Lebanon Township police were dispatched to the family’s residence on the 800 block of South 14th Avenue on Aug. 10 after Rebecca Hresko called 911 to request a dog warden, according to the district attorney’s office. The dispatcher sent officers when she ended the call without providing further information.

Officers found a 6-year-old girl who needed immediate medical care, prosecutors said. The child was covered in blood, a portion of her ear had been ripped off, and she had bite marks and lacerations over her body. She was taken by ambulance to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where she underwent emergency surgery. She required additional hospitalization after her initial release and remains at risk of losing at least part of her ear, according to the release.

Rebecca Hresko told police she picked the girl up from the child’s mother that morning and took her to the residence, the district attorney’s office said. Police obtained video showing the child around the dogs both inside and outside the property. Prosecutors said Rebecca Hresko told them the dogs watched the girl through a sliding glass door as she played and became increasingly agitated, and that she closed the blinds to calm them. When she opened the door, the dogs charged inside and Chip and Zeus attacked the child, according to the release.

Rebecca Hresko admitted she knew the two dogs had attacked a child two years earlier and that she was home when that attack occurred, prosecutors said.

The girl’s mother told police she left her daughter with Rebecca Hresko expecting them to visit Hersheypark, according to the release. When Hresko mentioned stopping at the house for clothing, prosecutors said, the mother specifically told her not to let her daughter become the dogs’ second victim.

The 2024 attack

The earlier attack happened in September 2024, when Debra Hresko was babysitting a 22-month-old child, according to the district attorney’s office. She told police she carried the child outside in the presence of the seven dogs, and that Chip and Zeus began to nip at the child as she held him, eventually knocking her down and pulling the child from her grasp.

The child suffered a partially detached ear along with lacerations and bite marks over his torso and was taken by ambulance to the Hershey Medical Center for emergency surgery and treatment, prosecutors said.

LebTown reported at the time that South Lebanon Township police were dispatched to the home at about 4:38 a.m. Sept. 10, 2024, and that the boy was airlifted to the medical center, where he was later listed in critical condition. Police said then that the dogs were “not a threat to the community.”

Police and the district attorney’s office said they met with the 2024 victim’s mother, who asked that no charges be filed against the family and said she had met the dogs on prior occasions when they behaved appropriately. Police attempted to file summary offenses related to owning a vicious dog for both dogs and subpoenaed the mother to appear in court, but she did not appear on two occasions and a magisterial district judge dismissed the charges, according to the release.

‘Fully preventable’

The family kept all seven dogs in the home after the 2024 attack, prosecutors said. Police interviewed all three defendants after this month’s attack. Andrew Hresko and Debra Hresko each admitted seeing the second victim outside with the dogs before the attack, according to the district attorney’s office, and all three described the attacks as “freak occurrences.” Prosecutors said Rebecca Hresko largely blamed the child in a second interview with police.

Police expect the two dogs to be euthanized by the family, the release states. The parties are waiting out a quarantine period to test the animals for rabies because of the extent of the child’s injuries.

“These charges were fully preventable,” District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said in the release. “The defendants chose to harbor dogs they knew to be vicious and violent to children within their home. The daughter defendant then chose to bring an innocent child into the dogs’ grasp — despite the child’s mother’s wishes. All three defendants saw the child near and around the dogs, including the two dogs from the prior attack. A responsible adult would have removed the child from the residence before she suffered grave physical consequences from their reckless and selfish actions.”

Preliminary hearings are pending.

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Three S. Lebanon Twp. family members charged in dog attacks on children

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