Dog walk ends in bloodshed, terror

Fliers letting residents know of a pit bull attack in the area have been posted anonymously in the Village Homes area of Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village after a pit bull named Blue allegedly ripped a chunk out of the arm of 60-year-old Cheri Lee.

The owner tells a different story. "Blue is a lap dog. He's the sweetest little thing who is all muscle and doesn't know his own strength," Blue's owner, C.C. Ebert, said. "He's a sweet baby dog who loves petting and attention."

Ebert said her dog got out of her yard by slipping through the legs of her husband, Peter, and went after Lee's small dog because Blue thought it was a toy. She said she and her husband are both handicapped and in their 60s. They also have a Rottweiler named Reggie. Both dogs were rescued before they would have been put to sleep, she said.

"They are my husband's babies. They are his life; he feeds and walks them every day," Ebert said.

Both dogs were running free around 3 p.m. April 17, said Lee.

She was on her usual daily walk with her 8-pound Shih Tzu dog named Rosie and had just taken Blue Spring Drive toward Triunfo Canyon Road and entered the greenbelt walking area of their neighborhood, Lee said. She was in a contemplative mood as she walked.

She looked over to her right and saw a pit bull running toward her.

"He was coming at bullet speed. Instinctively I literally jerked up Rosie by her leash and pulled her up into my arms," Lee said. "He ripped her out of my arms and took a chunk out of my arm- I felt absolute terror."

Lee said she remembers letting out a bloodcurdling scream as she watched the pit bull hold Rosie in his teeth and shake her around by her neck. A short distance away on the greenbelt was a Rottweiler, also unrestrained, she said.

She tried to help Rosie, but was no match for the pit bull, Lee said.

"Rosie was screaming. I was screaming, 'Please, help me, help me,'" Lee said. "Finally a man- I later found out was the dog's owner- came over and grabbed the dog by a chain around his neck."

He pulled the dog away. There was blood everywhere, she said.

"The dog's snout was covered with blood, and he looked like he liked the taste and wanted more," Lee recalled.

She ran for help to the first house she could reach, she said, but the woman who answered the door refused to call 911. She ran to another house nearby where she found help, and the police were called. Paramedics came to the scene and encouraged her to go to the hospital for medical treatment, she said.

"I didn't want to leave Rosie. She's all I have. I'm old and all alone. She means so much to me," Lee said.

After the incident, she said, she went to a vet with Rosie, who received $300 worth of treatment for puncture wounds. Lee's arm was treated at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Woodland Hills. Both owner and dog are on antibiotics. Lee is going to have plastic surgery, possibly a skin graft, she said.

For almost a week, Blue was still living at home on Dunlin Court, where he was under the usual 10 days' quarantine required following a dog-bite incident.

"I don't understand why animal control didn't take that dog and control him," Lee said. "If he could get out then, he could get out again. He's dangerous. What if the next time he attacks, it's a child?"

On Saturday, Lee went to the Agoura Animal Shelter and showed photos of her injuries and questioned the animal control authorities as to why the dog hadn't been taken into custody.

On Monday, after animal control officials spoke with the owners, the dog's ownership was legally turned over to the L. A. County animal control authorities, who took the dog into custody.