Child Mauled by 4 Pit Bulls, Doberman in Neighbor’s Yard

Four pit bulls and a Doberman pinscher in San Bernardino mauled a 1-year-old girl who crawled into the unfenced yard where the animals were chained, authorities said Monday.

The girl, Brenda Diaz, was reported missing from her home at about 6 p.m. Sunday, Sgt. Jenifer Aragon said. Police found her 30 minutes later in the backyard of a house next door with about 50 bite wounds over her body.

Brenda was dazed and bleeding, and firefighters immediately treated her for shock by dousing her with water from a garden hose, Aragon said. She was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where her condition was listed as fair.

Her father, Raul Diaz, told police that Brenda had been with him in the family’s fenced back yard as he worked on a chicken coop. She apparently crawled through a hole under the chain-link fence and when he noticed she was gone, Diaz and his wife, Delia, searched for her, Aragon said. They called police a short time later and the search was expanded.

Officers found the five dogs chained to stakes in the unfenced yard next door.

Police later determined that Barbara Fields, the neighbor, kept the pit bulls for their owner, James Marshall, who told authorities the dogs were being kept at her home for breeding. The Doberman was a stray.

The dogs were seized and placed in the city pound pending further investigation.