DALLAS (AP) - After a 52-year-old homeless Army veteran was fatally mauled by a pack of dogs last month, miscommunication between Dallas Animal Services and police led to a delay of several days before the dogs were seized from their owner, according to a newspaper report on findings by the city.
In the days following the attack, neighbors repeatedly called the city services line, 311, to report that the dogs were still running loose, the Dallas Morning News (https://bit.ly/1ZGrB6C) reported Saturday.
Meanwhile, no one has been arrested or charged in the May 2 attack on Antoinette Brown, but Dallas police have said the dogs’ owner could face criminal charges.
Brown died May 9, a week after the incident. A doctor told Brown’s family she had at least 100 bites. The attack left bone exposed on one of her arms and a large portion of her right thigh was gone.
A neighbor near the home of the dogs’ owner said the animals escaped frequently. The city report included numerous citations issued to a woman believed to be the dogs’ owner.
The city’s 79-page report identified more than a dozen shortcomings indicating how much the city must do to address loose canines, including major communication breakdowns between Dallas Animal Services and police.
Police who responded to initial 911 calls about the mauling couldn’t locate the dogs. And they didn’t tell Animal Services about it until May 5, the report says.
“Those dogs came back that attacked that woman,” one woman told a 311 dispatcher, who apparently was not aware of what had happened to Brown. The dispatcher told the caller that because the dogs weren’t actively attacking someone, officers have up to 72 hours to respond.
The caller said she was going to call 911 because “this dog almost killed the woman, probably did. Almost killed the woman last night right here outside my house.”
A caller early May 4 told police that three pit bulls were running after him and said the dogs were the same ones that had attacked other people.
A Dallas officer told 311 that it was “the exact same place and the exact same dogs” as two days earlier.
A dispatcher tried to call the on-duty animal services officer, but the officer missed the call. When he called back an hour later, the 311 operator told him not to bother because Dallas police hadn’t seen any dogs.
According to animal services policy, a supervisor should have been called within 15 minutes.
The 311 dispatcher told the caller an animal control officer would be out to set traps in the morning.
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, https://www.dallasnews.com
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