Killing of Dog After Attack Is Criticized

Neighbors of a Santa Ana woman mauled by a dog said they are upset that police Friday shot and killed the animal, which they described as a gentle and friendly stray that had adopted their apartment complex.

Police tracked down and shot the dog a day after it attacked Tamara Jurjis, who said she was trying to keep the large animal from her golden retriever, Cabo.

As police investigated Friday, Jurjis recovered at home and voiced certainty that the dog was vicious and trying to attack her.

“I don’t know what would have happened to me if Cabo hadn’t been there. . . . There was no question in my mind he was trying to hurt me, not just my dog, “ she said.

Santa Ana officers are still looking for the owner of the 80- to 90-pound dog, which had a collar but no tags. They identified it as a bull mastiff-Rottweiler. But neighbors said it seemed much smaller than police say and wondered if the identification was colored by the San Francisco case in which officers wrongly identified two dogs who killed a woman last week as bull mastiffs.

“He was really sweet and gentle. . . . If he was so vicious, would I have kneeled on my porch with my hand on his collar, with my cat,” asked Kelly Williams.

But police and Jurjis told a different story. They said the dog attacked Jurjis and her 13-month-old retriever outside the laundry room of her apartment complex.

Jurjis suffered a gaping wound on her upper right arm and puncture wounds on her buttocks. She said the dog first sniffed and then attacked her pet before turning his attention to her. “I remember screaming a lot and his teeth sinking into my left buttock,” said Jurjis, 38, a forensic specialist for the Sheriff’s Department.

Police and animal control officers tried to harness the dog at the scene, but it bolted, said Sgt. Raul Luna. It was spotted from a police helicopter outside a nearby supermarket, and an officer on the ground shot it.

“We have not determined whether the officer was threatened by the dog. But the fact is [the dog] couldn’t be contained,” said Officer Mario Corona. “Due to what he had heard, that he had attacked other people and animals, the officer did what he had to do.”