Dog attack victims recovering, hero thanked
A Linda man who intervened in a dog attack last week spent the weekend at Rideout Memorial Hospital being treated for injuries he suffered.
“They still don’t know if I need surgery, so it’s just a waiting game to see if the feel- ing comes back,” said Victor Torres, 33, who stopped two pit bulls attacking two other people on Simpson Lane last week. “I still don’t have any feeling in my pinky. The doctors told me to come back in a week or two to see if I need surgery.”
While he spent the weekend with doctors and family members, community mem- bers were busy heading a GoFundMe effort on Torres’ behalf. More than 50 percent of his fundraising goal has been met in just four days.
“It’s pretty cool to see other people going out of their way to help me,” Torres said. “I had no idea that they were doing the fundraiser for me. It feels good to have their support. Most of the people that have donated are people I don’t know personally.”
As of Monday afternoon, $4,520 had been raised of the $8,000 target goal. A total of 59 donations poured in over the weekend and on Monday, ranging from $20 to $500.
“The Torres family and Victor are all grateful for the
way the community has shown their love,” said Alex Valdez Sr., a friend of Torres who started the GoFundMe campaign. “Victor walked around the hospital during his stay and was greeted with horns, honking and his name being called out by strangers.”
Torres said the parents and son of one of the men he saved during the incident reached out to him to express their appreciation for him intervening in the attack.
Norman and Diane Hinman – parents of Kevin Hinman, 59, of Marysville – donated to Torres’ GoFundMe and left a message saying, “If Victor had not stopped, we might not have a son.”
Torres said Kevin Hinman’s son also reached out to him to thank him for what he did.
Torres also said he doesn’t have plans to go back to work yet. He is a truck driver and uses both arms in the job.
“A friend told me there might be a program that could help me with medical bills, so I’m going to look into that,” Torres said, who doesn’t have health insurance. “Right now, I’m just crossing my fingers hoping things will keep improving, even though I cannot really cross my fingers at the moment.”
Torres’ GoFundMe campaign can be found at www.gofundme.com/victor-torres-medical-fund.
Kevin Hinman posted on Facebook June 9 to update his followers on his condition. He said he had “lots of holes and some rips and tears” after the incident but he was doing OK.
Cycellia Palmer, 33, was another one of the people attacked during the incident. She was also the owner of the female pit bull involved in the attack. The extent of her injuries are unknown but her mother said she was in the hospital receiving treatment on Monday.
The final victim of the dog attack was Don Jackson, 43, of Oroville. The extent of Jackson’s injuries are unclear, as well as whether he has been treated for them.
Both pit bulls – male and female – were detained by Yuba County Animal Care Services following the incident. Leslie Carbah, spokesperson for the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office, said the dogs will remain quarantined for 10 days.
Carbah said it is up to the dog owners whether they will voluntarily surrender the animals to the county to be euthanized. If they are not surrendered, the county has the option of filing for a “vicious dog” status. If a judge decides that the dogs should be designated as vicious, Animal Care Services would then euthanize the animals. Rabies testing would then be done on the animals post-mortem.
Area Assemblyman James Gallagher called it frustrating, misprioritization and a “dereliction of duty.”
Gallagher and state Sen. Jim Nielsen last week were unable to persuade a legislative committee to allocate $100 million for levee repairs. During the legislative budget subcommittee’s meeting, the state’s chief deputy director for the Department of Finance noted that a “compromise” was made in instead providing Proposition 1 funds.
But Gallagher said that “compromise” won’t do much to repair damaged levees all over the state, including one in Yuba City. Rather, the $111 million portion of the budget is earmarked for capital projects and environmental mitigation.
“It was a compromise between the governor and the Democratic Legislative leadership over how much they’re going to advance out of Chapter 11 of Prop. 1,” Gallagher said Monday. “It’s not targeted toward doing critical repairs to sites that saw damage from the last storm.”
Of the $111 million of the Public Safety and Prevention of Damage portion of the proposed budget:
$20 million is appropriated for Delta levee subventions,
$10 million is for Delta special projects,
$20 million is for Delta systemwide flood risk reduction,
$5 million is for Delta emergency response,
$9 million is for coastal watershed flood risk reduction,
$40 million is for the Central Valley tributary program,
$7 million is for Central Valley systemwide flood risk reduction.
Critical levee repair work could only come from the $7 million allotted for systemwide Central Valley flood risk reduction, according to Gallagher’s chief of staff, Curtis Grima.
“The $111 million is largely useless for doing what really needs to be done for next flood season,” Gallagher said.
In addition, Proposition 1 water bonds funds are earmarked mostly for Delta projects, he said.
“People in the Delta are going to see that as a betrayal of Prop. 1 funds,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher and Nielsen shared their discontent with the committee’s rejection of the funding request, Nielsen calling it “incomprehensible.” Gallagher said $100 million should be appropriated every fiscal year specific to address major repair issues throughout the state’s levee system.
The state’s 2017-18 budget is expected to be adopted by the Legislature on Thursday. Gallagher said he will be spending the next few days working to change some appropriations and getting some traction on the issue.