One dog euthanized and another impounded after two separate attacks in two days

Within the last week, four people including a four-year-old were seriously injured in two separate dog attacks.

One of those dogs had to be euthanized and the other dog’s owner was charged with owning a dangerous animal.

Ruben Martinez is the owner of the pit bull that attacked not only him but two others outside his Pueblo home. Martinez tells KRDO that two of his friends were outside messing around when the dog attacked them. Martinez then ran outside to separate them but was attacked as well.

Martinez said it took all three of them to hold down the dog, “While he was holding his neck he was still biting him.”

But it wasn’t enough, police officers had to shoot the pit bull with a stun gun to get it to stop. That’s when Captain Lindsey Vigna with the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region’s Animal Law Enforcement was called in to investigate the attack and whether the dog should be labeled dangerous.

“We are looking at what types of injuries, we are looking at does the animals in question have history, do we have history with the owners?” Vigna explains.

She says Martinez surrendered his dog to be put down.

Then on Friday there was another vicious attack, this time involving a four-year-old boy in Colorado Springs and a husky that belonged to someone staying with his family.

The injuries to the child were so bad that he had to be taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. The husky is now impounded at the Humane Society in Colorado Springs. Vigna says the attack was triggered when the child got hold of one of the dog’s toys.

“The dog was very possessive of its toy and the child had grabbed ahold of the toy,” Vigna says.

The owner was charged with ownership of a dangerous animal. Both owners say their dogs aren’t dangerous and have no previous record of being violent.

Vigna says dogs of all breeds can attack if provoked, “To someone that dog may seem like their beloved family member and would never do that — they are still animals and they still respond to specific circumstances.”

In the case of the husky in Colorado Springs, we’re told that the owner has decided to hold onto the dog until a judge decides if the husky is dangerous. But that’s an expensive decision.

The owner will have to pay 20 dollars a day to house the dog until court proceedings are finished.