The Ultimate Insult to Dog Victim

It is the ultimate in blaming the victim. San Francisco attorney Robert Noel, who with his wife owned the dog that fatally mauled a neighbor late last month, now claims, “All she had to do was close the door” of her apartment to survive. Close the door against an attacking dog that weighed more than she did? Really.

Does he believe that Diane Whipple, 33, was somehow responsible for the dog seizing her throat while their other large dog tore at her clothes after his wife, Marjorie Knoller, lost control of the animals in the hallway of their apartment building? Please.

He also speculated in a letter to the San Francisco district attorney that the dogs’ interest might have been triggered by the scent of Whipple’s perfume or even steroids she may have taken. Incredible.

Noel also claims that their “lovable mutt,” Bane, a 123-pound Presa Canario-English mastiff mix, never showed aggression toward people. Why then did neighbors call him “Killer Dog” and “Beast” and try to avoid the animals?

There are many unanswered questions about this tragedy. Why did Noel and Knoller take the dogs as a favor to a prison inmate, Paul “Cornfed” Schneider, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, who had been convicted of numerous violent crimes? Why did they recently adopt the 38-year-old Schneider, who is serving a life sentence?

Noel says he and his wife expect to be arrested in the death of their neighbor. In the past, he has spun wild conspiracy theories on behalf of his prison-guard and inmate clients. Now, with his own freedom at stake, he tells the wildest tale of all--that Diane Whipple might have been responsible for her own savage killing. For shame.