SAN ANTONIO – The dog that attacked an elderly woman on the far northwest side Thursday morning is now in the custody of Animal Care Services (ACS).
We’ve learned it’s one of several dangerous dog cases reported to ACS recently, and the second at that particular location in the past week.
We’ve received reports about both people and pets being attacked by dangerous dogs. Owners and neighbors say they want these problems addressed.
We’ve received reports about both people and pets being attacked by dangerous dogs. Owners and neighbors tell us they’ve seen the dogs in question seized and returned to the owners.
Now, they’re hoping to see change to put a stop to a growing problem.
Thursday’s dog attack — sending an 80-year-old woman to the hospital this morning.
“She is at this time, believed to have non-life-threatening injuries,” said a spokesperson with San Antonio Police Department. “ACS was called to the scene, and they are actively investigating it at this time.”
It’s the latest of several reports of dog attacks against both humans and animals.
“I feel like there could be a better process or system with ACS when things like this happen,” said a woman named Kim. Her dog was attacked and killed last week.
Neighbors say they’ve called ACS multiple Times about the dog involved in Thursday morning’s attack over the past year.
“That dog actually attacked a little girl here, went after my daughter, My 14-year-old daughter, and went after me,” said Nancy Guevara who lives in the neighborhood.
“As we were walking in front of the house, the dog immediately charged straight to my daughter, broke the chain,” said Beatrice Funderburk, whose daughter was attacked by the dog in question.
ACS officials confirmed the dog bit a minor last week, adding that its owner was uncooperative — failing to comply with Legal quarantine orders.
The dog is in ACS custody as of Thursday.
Just a week ago, two dogs were killed in a west side neighborhood by their neighbor’s dog. Those owners say the dog had been surrendered into ACS custody before and returned back to those owners.
Now they’re scared that it will happen all over again.
“It seems like ACS only takes action if it’s a human,” Kim said.
On Saturday, she lost her dog of eight years: Kiwi. She says the dogs belong to her neighbor. They jumped her parents’ back fence, attacking kiwi.
They then jumped into her neighbor’s yard, killing his pet as well.
“That day, on Saturday, they did not do anything with the dogs,” Kim said. “We don’t know if they cited the owners or anything like that.”
We reached out to ACS to figure out what happened next. A spokesperson told us four dogs from the neighbors’ home were surrendered to ACS on Tuesday. We’re also told that they’ve been engaged in an aggressive dog investigation at the owners’ address for “some time”.
“It’s not so much the dogs,” Kim said. “It’s the negligence of the owners that we’re concerned about. Because this has already happened once. We can’t be certain that it’s not going to happen again.”
We’ve asked ACS whether they’ve had to obtain warrants to seize the dogs, as well as how they plan to ensure owners comply with quarantine guidelines.
We’ll let you know when we hear back.