OXNARD : Owner Won’t Be Charged in Dogs’ Attack

The Ventura County district attorney’s office has decided not to charge the owner of two pit bull terriers that attacked a 10-year-old Oxnard boy March 8. Prosecutors said they believe the victim was teasing the dogs.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Rafelson announced Wednesday that Anthony Boyd, 23, of Oxnard did not violate California’s so-called “Vicious Dog Act” when his pit bulls, Easy and Tigre, attacked Paul Lucero at 6:20 that evening.

The dogs mauled the boy’s left leg before Boyd could pull them off. The boy later underwent surgery for the wounds.

Rafelson said the victim and his friends had been playing in the back yard of 820 Cedar Court, using slingshots to fire rocks at cans. According to witnesses, Lucero and a companion climbed over a fence without permission to look at the dogs in a yard next door.

Witnesses later reported that children were throwing rocks and barking at the dogs, but Lucero denied throwing rocks, Rafelson said. The dogs attacked. The companion escaped, but Paul was bitten by both dogs, Rafelson said.

Rafelson said that there was no evidence that Boyd had trained the dogs to bite, attack or kill. California’s Vicious Dog Act was not violated because the dogs apparently were provoked by the rock-throwing and also because both boys were trespassing at the time of the incident, Rafelson said.