Fatal mauling reignites debate over pit bulls

WESLACO -- Hidden behind the tidy garden shed, far away from the picnic bench and playhouse in the wide, well-kempt yard, was Greco's den.

The 1 1/2-year-old pit bull, described by his owners as sweet and submissive, lived here under a roof of wooden pallets and played with the children of the house.

Until he killed Pablo.

Wednesday night, according to witnesses, Greco flew into a frenzied rage stoked by a passing dog and tackled 5-year-old Pablo Lopez, fatally mauling him in a powerful attack.

Thursday afternoon, Greco was Jekyll once again, wagging hopefully at a visitor to his quarantine kennel at the Palm Valley Animal Center, a private, nonprofit animal welfare agency in Edinburg. But the bloody wounds along the right side of his face and leg from a sheriff's deputy's shotgun blast were painful reminders that Hyde lurked within.

Lovers and loathers of the pit bull alike can play the attack in slow motion the next day and point to the warning signs and mistakes.

Pablo toddling out the door alone. Greco the dog, agitated by another animal. The den and the chain. The leap and the bite, the powerful jaw clamped down on the boy's neck. The screams.

Pit bulls are large, powerful, energetic dogs bred in the 1800s to fight other dogs. Since then, they have developed a reputation as hair-trigger fighters and guard dogs.

But owners say they can be loving companions.

Cyndee Kendrick, a teacher and animal obedience trainer in Edinburg, said her pit bull lives happily with four other dogs and is docile around small children.

"We have an 18-month-old grandchild who rides on his back," she said.

Kendrick and other pit bull fans say chaining the dog was the worst mistake made by Pablo's aunt and uncle, with whom he lived.

Chaining any animal makes it territorial rather than pack-oriented, Kendrick said.

"They say, ‘This is my territory - don't come near it,'" she explained.

"You never tie up a pit bull," said Jay Sheppard, a Mission pit bull breeder. "If you do ... when you get home you need to let that dog off the leash and make sure it can exercise and socialize."

Pit bull owners may be training their dogs to be aggressive without realizing it by playing games like tug-of-war, Kendrick said. Any game that encourages pit bulls to clamp their jaws and hang on mimics the aggression conditioning the dogs receive when they are trained for fighting.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said he has seen such training in action but that pit bulls also have an inherently dangerous temperament.

"Two weeks ago we responded to a call, and a pit bull attempted to attack one of my deputies and we shot him," the sheriff said Thursday. "Certainly that was not the first pit bull we'd shot, and it wouldn't be the last. Pit bulls are bred to attack and to kill."

"Now, I'm a dog lover and I've owned dogs all my life. But pit bulls are a different breed," he said. "If you had seen the injuries on this child and the manner of the attack, I think it's obvious the dog was trying to kill this child."

The board at the Palm Valley Animal Center, Hidalgo County's only open animal shelter, agrees and refuses to offer pit bulls for adoption, although many come through the back doors in the custody of animal control agencies and private owners.

"The thing about pit bulls (is that) the majority of them are probably fine," said Dr. Steve Bentsen, a veterinarian who serves on the shelter's board. "But it's hard to know which ones are fine."

There is just too much risk in adopting out a pit bull, he said, especially when there are too many adoptable dogs at the shelter for the number of people looking for pets. Palm Valley euthanizes hundreds of animals per week.

Bentsen said he vividly remembers watching two well-cared-for pet pit bulls break a truck window in their haste to rip apart a smaller dog outside a clinic. The creatures ignored five men working to separate them.

"It seems to be a switch that flips in them," he said. "Many (pit bulls) are quite lovable. Until you've seen one of these pit bull frenzies, you don't understand the problem."

"The fact is that some of them are unstable."

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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.