Police: Pit bull accused of Christmas Eve attack
Municipal Court judge to decide if dog, a repeat offender, should be euthanized over injuries to woman and labradoodle
A judge will be asked to decide whether the city of Santa Fe should euthanize a pit bull that a Los Angeles man says suddenly attacked his labradoodle and bit his wife as they were strolling along Canyon Road with their 8-year-old daughter during the annual Christmas Eve Farolito Walk.
Johnny Martinez, supervisor of the Animal Services Division, said Wednesday a Municipal Court judge will determine if the pit bull, Jasper, should be deemed a vicious animal subject to euthanasia. Records provided by Santa Fe police Wednesday show the holiday incident is the third time someone has reported that Jasper suddenly attacked a nearby dog since December 2015.
The dog’s owner, John Pancake, 64, did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday evening.
According to a report by Animal Services Officer Jason Apodaca, Jasper was in the care of a dog sitter at the time of the attack. The woman told Apodaca that Jasper was secure in Pancake’s nearby residence when he suddenly bolted out an open door, the report says, and she chased after the dog.
David Frankham said in a statement Wednesday that he, his wife, their daughter and their 10-year-old labradoodle, Chuko, were walking on Canyon Road around 9:40 p.m. Sunday when a “large pit bull” attacked, locking his jaws on the backside of the family’s dog, “tearing at him as we pulled and fought to get him off.”
“Hearing the cries of our dog, our yells for help, and our daughter’s screams — two other people walking up Canyon [Road] tried to help,” Frankham said.
Jasper then bit the right arm of Frankham’s wife, he said. Frankham said he began kicking Jasper and he released his jaws.
After Jasper turned his attention to Frankham’s 8-year-old daughter, Frankham said, he grabbed him by the neck and restrained him until a woman who identified herself as Jasper’s dog sitter arrived.
The statement said the family ran to the nearest house on Canyon Road where a good Samaritan welcomed them inside and helped attend to the injuries until an EMT arrived and treated the woman’s wound. They took the labradoodle to an animal emergency clinic where treatment included
40 stitches to close up its wounds.
Frankham in an interview said he wished the city’s animal control officer would have impounded Jasper immediately. Instead, Apodaca decided to quarantine the dog at its home, records show. On Wednesday, after determining that Jasper had been implicated in two previous attacks, Animal Services impounded the pit bull.
Martinez, the animal control supervisor, said animal control officers have discretion as to whether to impound an animal. In this case, he said, the officer inspected Pancake’s premises and decided the dog could be securely kept there while officials investigated whether Jasper had a history of attacks.
Records show Jasper was deemed a dangerous dog in October 2016, when Pancake agreed in a Municipal Court judgment that for a 180-day period the canine would be kept on a 3-foot leash and muzzled whenever away from the owner’s premises. The settlement says that if Jasper was involved in “any attack” it would be deemed a vicious animal and euthanized.