El Paso County Sheriff's Office warns pet owners after dog attacks injure woman, child
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office reminds pet owners that dogs must be properly contained in a yard. The warning comes after a senior citizen and an 11-year-old child were attacked by dogs this week.
The dog attacks outside the El Paso city limits occurred after two other people were bitten by pit bulls on Sunday afternoon on Tierra Limon Drive in far East El Paso, where one of the dogs was fatally shot by a police officer.
About 4:55 p.m. Monday, a woman was bitten several times on her face, arms and legs by a pit bull and a bulldog during an attack in the 200 block of Oil Mill Drive in Tornillo, the Sheriff's Office said in a news statement.
The senior citizen was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, officials said. The sheriff's Animal Welfare Unit ticketed the dog owners and seized the animals to be euthanized. An investigation continues.
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Shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday, an 11-year-old child was bitten by what sheriff's officials described as a feral dog that was a pit bull/German shepherd mix. The attack occurred on Lake Chaplin street in an unincorporated community off Horizon Boulevard, east of Horizon City, officials said.
The child was not seriously injured and was provided medical treatment at the scene. Deputies and Animal Welfare officers continue a search to capture the loose dog, officials said.
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The Sheriff's Office warns that it is against the law to not have a dog on a leash in public or to not have it contained in a yard or a home. The crime is a class C misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine per incident.
If an unsecured dog attacks a person unprovoked, its owner could be charged with a third-degree felony if the dog causes serious injury, and it is a second-degree felony if the dog kills someone, the Sheriff's Office said.
Boys disfigured, killed in dog attacks
Last year, an 8-year-old boy was disfigured when he was mauled by three pit bulls while he and his younger brother were waiting for a school bus in Las Colonias area of eastern El Paso County.
In 2017, a 4-year-old boy named Jacob Charles Brooks was mauled to death by his family's dogs when he was left alone on a trampoline in the backyard of his Lower Valley home. The boy's parents, Ashley Brooks and Brittany Brooks, were initially charged with felony charges of injury to a child by omission.
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The case waited years to go to trial amid a backlog of cases and delays during the COVID-19 closures.
According to El Paso County court records, last month, Brittany Brooks pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless injury to a child and was sentenced to two years of deferred adjudication probation, a $500 fine and 100 hours of community service. The case will be dismissed if the probation is successfully completed. Charges against Ashley Brooks were dropped.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso County dog attacks seriously injure woman; child bitten
