Woman held in dog mauling that cost man both legs
A San Antonio woman whose dog attacked an elderly neighbor on the West Side, causing injuries so severe that doctors amputated both of the man’s legs, has been arrested on a felony charge related to the mauling.
Danielle Henderson, 32, was arrested shortly after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of dangerous dog attack causing serious bodily injury, a third-degree felony. A Bexar County grand jury indicted her on the charge on Nov. 30, court records show.
The indictment accuses Henderson of exhibiting criminal negligence by failing to secure a dog she owned, which made an “unprovoked attack” that caused serious bodily injury to her neighbor, Max De Los Santos Jr., now 77.
Henderson’s bail was set at $25,000, according to Bexar County jail records. If convicted of the felony charge, she could be sentenced to two to 10 years in prison and fined up to $10,000.
A German shepherd and a pit bull escaped Henderson’s yard in the 7400 block of Fieldgate Drive around 1:45 a.m. Aug. 16. Both animals attacked De Los Santos Jr., who lived across the street.
Henderson owned the pit bull, a 2-year-old female named Buttercup. She was caring for the German shepherd, a 6-yearold male named Cash, which belonged to her mother. Henderson is charged only in connection with the dog she owned.
De Los Santos was on his own property when the dogs attacked. He had gone to his driveway to look for his keys.
The dogs shredded De Los Santos’ right leg, exposing tendons, muscles and bone from the knee to the foot. They ravaged the back of his left leg, tore gaping holes in his right arm and ripped off part of his right ear.
Both of De Los Santos’ legs later had to be amputated. He is still recovering at a rehabilitation center.
The German shepherd bit another neighbor, Rudy Pantoja Jr., on the right thigh when Pantoja intervened to drive the dogs away from De Los Santos.
Both dogs were later euthanized by San Antonio Animal Care Services.
The animals had gotten out of their yard and wandered the neighborhood previously, several neighbors told the Expressnews.
Henderson has declined repeated requests for comment.
The mauling of De Los Santos was one in a string of such attacks in San Antonio this year.
In September, Paul Anthony Striegl Jr., 47, was attacked by a dog that escaped from his nextdoor neighbor’s yard in a trailer park on the Northeast Side. Striegl was rushed to Brooke Army Medical Center, where he died weeks later of complications from the attack.
In a second deadly mauling, Air Force veteran Ramon Najera Jr., 81, was killed by pit bulls on the West Side on Feb. 24.
Najera and his wife, who lived in Leon Valley, had stopped to visit a friend in the 2800 block of Depla Street. Three dogs escaped from the yard next door, and two of them attacked the couple. Najera’s wife was wounded but survived.
The animals’ owners were charged with dangerous dog attack causing death and with recklessly causing injury to an elderly person, both felonies.
More recently, three pit bulls escaped from their fenced yard on the near East Side on Nov. 26 and attacked a passerby, tearing off one of her ears and biting her face, head and arm, according to a police report.
About 3,000 dog bites are reported to Animal Care Services every year. Severe bites — defined by city ordinance as those causing death, broken bones or disfigurement — rose from 110 in the 2018 fiscal year to 188 in 2022, a 70% jump. In the 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, ACS recorded nearly 300 severe bites.