(Photo credited to twitter.com/Veniceintel.)
This is the woman identified as the person who had the dog that attacked and killed the little dog recently on the Venice Boardwalk and bit the lady trying to help her dog and two other women, both trying to help. This picture is used here as an identifiable forewarning for others walking their dogs. Encircled is a butane tank and an axe that were used to fight off the dog.
A woman was injured and her dog was killed by a vicious dog owned by a homeless person recently on the Venice Boardwalk. Below is a letter sent to Chief Michel Moore by local resident describing the incident and stating the fact that residents are faced frequently with vicious dogs owned by homeless.
Dear Chief Moore,
Last night I was walking my dog on the boardwalk early evening. On my way home the BoardWalk was blocked off with ambulances and police cars on Thornton and Ocean Front Walk. When I got home I learned that a resident who was walking her small dog was viciously attacked by 1 of 2 dogs owned by a homeless woman who has been reported over and over for the same issues.
The woman’s dog was killed. She was taken to the hospital and needed 13 stitches in 3 locations. Who is going to pay for her medical bills? California is a strict liability state when it comes to dog attacks, this is a not a 1 free first bite state. Normally the owner would have the liability to pay for this woman’s medical bills, but since you refuse to enforce the law among the worst offenders, she is in a position where she will have to pay these costs herself. We love our dogs, they are our best friends, so we are going to try to break up the dog fight to save our dogs.
Note: A video was provided but the woman who was attacked asked that it be removed so the reference to the video has been removed.
You can watch the hysteria of the dog attack on this video. It’s very disturbing and shocking. You will even see a homeless man pull out an axe and try to kill the dog which had bitten the woman. This looks like a scene out of a third world country.
Attached is an email that I wrote to Councilmember Bonin on October 8th, 2019 bringing up the fact that dogs owned by homeless people were becoming a huge problem, I myself have been lunged at while walking my dog a few times now. I copied yourself, the Mayor, and the City Attorney as well. Councilmember Bonin never responded to my email.
What happened yesterday was unnecessary. It was caused out of gross negligence by the City and failure to protect its citizens. Many of us have been warning you about this specific issue for some time and no action has been taken. We have warned the City that something bad was bound to happen, now it has, and this resident happened to walk by at the wrong time.
I look forward to working with this resident, to help her collect as much evidence as she needs documenting that the City knew about this issue and failed to act, so that she can sue the City of LA for damages. Perhaps once she wins her lawsuit will the City start doing anything to prevent this from unnecessarily happening to anyone else. It is my understanding that LAPD has known about this problematic group of homeless people for sometime now, but there is nothing they can do about the situation.
What can we do to find a solution? How can you take these animals away from negligent owners who abuse and weaponize them. breed and sell them illegally? I keep my dog up to date with all immunizations. How can you enforce that everyone follow the same rules in order to protect the health of the public? What if anything, can you offer as a solution to get out to the boardwalk today and start taking action? I belive that you can find some method of enforcement to stop this from happening to anyone else.
Soledad Ursua
Venice Beach Resident
