A California woman is on life support after enduring a brutal mauling by three canines described as “pit bulls or pit bull mixes” last Saturday, according to reports.
Police said Angela Johnson was viciously mauled by the animals, who were not her own, as she hung laundry outside of her Anza home on Mitchell Road at approximately 10 a.m. Saturday, My Valley News reports, citing police and animal control officials.
According to Riverside County Animal Services (RCAS) spokesperson John Walsh, the dogs responsible for the attack were “pit bulls or pit bull mixes.”
The owner of the dog, identified by the agency as Jesse Leon Miranda, 61, was reportedly taken into custody shortly after the unthinkable tragedy occurred, but later posted $20,000 bail.
According to Mercury News, authorities “believe the dogs were not intentionally set on Johnson,” though the investigation is ongoing.
Welsh said the dogs’ owner “violated the county leash law,” and could receive a “citation” for having his canines loose. The case is now in the hands of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, who will decide if Miranda will be charged.
The victim’s son, Tim Platt, recalled the horrifying incident to My Valley News.
“The dogs basically ate my mom alive, ripping out a main artery in her throat, causing a severe stroke to the left side of her brain, leaving her half brain-dead,” Platt stated Monday.
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Platt has also reportedly been given the agonizing task of deciding whether to keep his own mother, who is being cared for at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, alive via life support.
“I was asked to let my mother die today, by doctors and family,” Platt said. “Everyone tried to convince me today to just let her die as one side of her brain swelled into the other side. But I just could not let my mother go.”
The vicious dogs are reportedly being held at the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus, and animal control staff is “seeking to have the dogs euthanized.” Welsh said a hearing to determine the animals’ fate was held Wednesday, and a decision is expected to be made within 10 days.
“39 U.S. dog bite-related fatalities occurred in 2017,” Dogsbite.org reported. “Despite being regulated in Military Housing areas and over 900 U.S. cities, pit bulls contributed to 74% (29) of these deaths. Pit bulls make up about 6.5% of the total U.S. dog population.”
“This is another preventable attack on an innocent person and one we find very upsetting,” Riverside County Department of Animal Services Director Robert Miller reportedly stated following the attack on Johnson. “It’s imperative that owners of these types of dogs do everything in their power to prevent such horrific attacks.”
[Feature Photo: Angela Johnson via GoFundMe]
