Suits point finger at shelter in pet attacks

2 separate claims accuse Lucky Paws of negligence

Two recently filed lawsuits claim that a dog and a cat from the city’s Lucky Paws Pet Adoption Center have attacked people.

Rocky the cat, adopted from the store in the Coronado Center in December 2015, seemed fine with its new owner, Julie DeMasseo, when the two visited in the store and as they got to know each other at home for a few days after adoption.

But when the pair woke up from a nap Dec. 15, 2015, DeMasseo says in her lawsuit, the cat, which had been sleeping on her lap, viciously attacked her.

“The cat attack was so severe that Mr. Jim DeMasseo had to pry Rocky’s jaw open in order to get it away from” Julie’s arm, the suit says.

The attack triggered complications — and an infection — at the site of previous surgical implants Julie DeMasseo had to treat severe rheumatoid arthritis, the suit says. The infection required hospitalization for two days.

The suit says the city and Lucky Paws were negligent in adopting out a cat they should have known was “vicious and liable to attack or injure human beings.”

Julie DeMasseo, of Rio Rancho, seeks compensation for her pain and suffering and legal fees. Her attorney did not return calls for comment.

In a separate suit, John J. Salas, of Bernalillo County, also seeks money for the pain and suffering he says he endured after a Lucky Paws dog being walked by a Lucky Paws employee jumped up on Salas — who had approached the dog — and bit his lip, “tearing flesh from his face.”

Salas says in the suit that the city and the mall were negligent in not warning him about the dog’s “violent nature and history” and in not restraining the dog properly.

Salas’ attorney did not return calls for comment.

The city also did not respond to a request for comment.