A Houston man died Wednesday while trying to protect his own pet after two neighbor dogs broke through the fence and attacked his animal.
Police said the 69-year-old man was bitten to death at about 4 p.m., according to KTRK-TV.
Police said the man was inside his home, but emerged when he heard the sounds of his dog being attacked.
“Officers arrived, along with the fire department. They found an adult male in a residence here. There was at least one dog attacking the person when the fire department got here,” Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department said, according to KPRC-TV.
North officers are at 5500 Sheraton Oaks investigating the death of an adult male. Initial indications are the male was bitten by dogs. 202 pic.twitter.com/OQcCJfMl8D
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) February 1, 2023
When officers arrived, one dog was chewing on the man’s corpse.
One of the dogs charged an officer, police said.
“The officer fired one shot, striking the dog and the dog ran off back in the other yard,” Crowson said.
KPRC reported that the victim, whose name was not released, was physically disabled. Police had initially reported his age as being 30.
“He was always out checking the mail and would come to play with my cats or call my cats,” neighbor Edward Lorenzo said.
Houston’s animal shelter, known as BARC, to which all of the animals involved were taken, said the attacking dogs were Staffordshire terrier mixes.
The dog for whom its owner gave up his life in an effort to rescue was euthanized due to the extent of its injuries, BARC said, according to KHOU-TV.
The dog that was attacked was a poodle, police said, according to KTRK.
[embedded content]
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office and police are investigating the incident, according to KPRC.
The Houston incident is not isolated. In El Paso Texas, this week, a woman police described as elderly and an 11-year-old girl were attacked by dogs in two separate incidents, according to KTSM-TV. The woman was hospitalized due to her injuries from a pit bull and a bulldog. The girl was bitten by a feral dog described as a pit bull/German shepherd mix.
In Georgia, a 68-year-old woman died when a pit bulldog owned by her husband attacked her, according to WMAZ-TV,
In England, a 4-year-old girl was killed when she was attacked by a dog while she was in the backyard of a home, according to Newsweek. That animal’s breed was not known.
