Puppies With a Deadly Lineage

A Lennox woman on Friday defended her plan to sell the descendants of a vicious dog that mauled a popular San Francisco lacrosse coach to death earlier this year in an attack that horrified the nation.

Carolyn Murphy, 52, ran a classified ad in The Times and two other newspapers offering to sell the seven puppies, which are the grandsons and granddaughters of Bane, the Presa Canario dog that tore out Diane Whipple’s throat in January.

The ad did not explicitly describe the puppies as killer dogs, but for anyone who followed the grisly tale and its twisted legal aftermath, the six-line pitch came close.

“Dog-O-War Presa Canario Pups!” said the ad, which ran Saturday and Sunday in The Times, between Yorkies and aquariums for sale. “Bane’s daughter bred to imported son of CH. Urco-Big, Bad to the bone, Protective + Stable. Guaranteed.”

Murphy insisted that she advertised the puppies as Bane’s descendants only in the interests of full disclosure, an explanation that made Whipple’s partner and officials in San Francisco scoff.

“I want people to know exactly where they came from,” Murphy said in an interview from behind her backyard fence, with the dogs frolicking at her feet. “They need to understand the power of the dogs.”

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan said that owning big, aggressive dogs like Bane--who was bred at the direction of inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison--is “a cult thing” and that the advertisement could only be a way of “seeking to profit from the fact that this dog’s grandfather killed this poor woman.”

Sharon Smith, Whipple’s partner, called Murphy’s actions “absolutely disgusting.”

“The only thing worse than this is whoever buys these puppies,” said Smith. “I understood that [Murphy] actually was promoting them as offspring of Bane. It’s awful.”

Whipple was attacked by Bane, a Presa Canario-English mastiff mix, and another dog named Hera in the hall of her apartment building as she was trying to unlock the door and get to safety. The attack was so gruesome that police officers at the scene needed counseling.

Murphy has a son at Pelican Bay. The original owners of Bane and Hera are inmates at the notorious prison.

Murphy is selling Bane’s three male and four female descendants for $1,200 each. Their mother, Roka, is Bane’s daughter. Murphy said she bought Roka before Whipple’s death, but acknowledged that she willingly bred the dog after the attack.

The puppies are 5 months old, weigh 115 pounds and are about 2 feet tall. They eat a 44-pound bag of dog food every few days; their food and veterinarian bills are so high that Murphy says she must sell them.

“They’re friendly with everybody. I’ve never seen them go after anyone,” Murphy said as the dogs jumped on her and a few of her 13 grandchildren, licking faces and hands and never growling or barking.

The puppies answer to carefully picked names: Goliath, Fuzzy, Blackey, Stripe and Scarface for the darker ones, Bonnie and Clyde for the two with the lighter coats.

But despite the puppies’ apparent friendliness, Murphy warns that Roka, her male mate, Menace, and their litter are capable of attacking when provoked.

Murphy said she advertised the dogs for sale in the Pennysaver and the Daily Breeze four weeks after their birth. She said she waited until last weekend to advertise in The Times because she worried about the notoriety of the dogs’ ancestors.

However, she insists that she does not understand the controversy over the sale of her dogs, which attracted about seven calls from prospective buyers, mostly women.

“I’m not the only person in the world who’s had a litter of puppies,” Murphy said.

David Garcia, a spokesman for The Times, said the paper pulled Murphy’s classified ad after a reader called early in the week to complain about it.

“The same standards of good taste and appropriateness that apply to our display ads also apply to our classified ads,” Garcia said. “It appears that when the ad was placed, the connection with the tragic death in San Francisco was not made. However, once we did become aware of the context surrounding the ad, it was immediately pulled.”

Bane has been put to death since the attack. Attorneys Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel--the husband and wife who got the two dogs after representing Pelican Bay inmates--are in jail awaiting trial in Whipple’s death.

Knoller had the dogs on leashes when they leaped at Whipple and became uncontrollable. Knoller has been charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Noel has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Both pleaded not guilty.

Hera remains in the custody of San Francisco’s animal shelter, although her owners have said she was not involved in the attack on Whipple, 33. The dog has been ordered euthanized, but legal controversy swirls around whether she is needed alive as evidence in the trial. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Aug. 15.

Smith and Penny Whipple, Diane’s mother, have filed wrongful-death suits against Knoller and Noel. Whipple, who lives in Connecticut, could not be reached for comment Friday.

But her attorney, Ronald H. Rouda, described her as “devastated by the horrendous death of her daughter. And to think that anyone would want to capitalize on the grandpups of the killer dog is just unthinkable.”

But Murphy insists--like Knoller and Noel--that something must have provoked Bane to attack Whipple. She said she had been around the dog several times and found him to be something like his offspring--playful and slobbery.

Murphy said that because of the expense she must sell the puppies.

“I don’t have any choice,” she said, adding that she hopes they end up with a “good owner and a good environment, with children hopefully.”