A Gilroy woman whose dog was attacked by pit bull terriers along
the Uvas Creek levee last week said the situation could have been
much worse, and she is glad the dogs did not attack anyone else
before police responded two hours later.
A Gilroy woman whose dog was attacked by pit bull terriers along the Uvas Creek levee last week said the situation could have been much worse, and she is glad the dogs did not attack anyone else before police responded two hours later.
“The whole thing was upsetting at the time,” said Doris Knapp, who had screws placed in her arms and wrists as a result of a fracture she suffered during the incident. “I wanted (police) to go out and look for the dogs. There’s so many people pushing little kids in strollers, and there’s a lot of people walking their dogs.”
Knapp, a 70-year-old ROP instructor at Gavilan College, was stoic about the incident, deflecting any sense of drama. Still, she said it was a difficult situation, and had her son not been with her to beat off the two pit bulls, she believes she might not still be able to reach out and pet her 12-year-old chow mix, named Genghis.
“If I had been alone, I think they would have killed my dog,” she said. “And I’m not sure what would’ve happened to me while I was down on the ground.”
Knapp and her son were walking west on the levee when, rounding a curve up ahead at a trot, the two pit bulls and a small mix-breed dog appeared, she said. Suddenly, they bolted toward her, and the pit bulls took hold of her dog’s neck and hind quarters.
“It was all confusion,” she said.
The son kicked the dogs while a small crowd gathered, urging him to kick harder, she said. By kicking, he managed to get both pit bulls off Genghis, but one of the dogs came back and took hold of Genghis’ neck. At that point, the son “found a pretty good-sized rock” and smashed the pit bull on the head, which stunned the dog, Knapp said.
The attacking dogs stumbled off toward the creek, while Genghis ran north toward nearby residences, she said. However, the Knapps quickly found Genghis, who suffered non-life threatening bite wounds.
Knapp believed the dogs belonged to someone in the area because of their cleanliness and because she believes she has seen someone walking them.
During the attack, Knapp got tangled in Genghis’ leash and fell, breaking her hand and arm in several places, she said. While the injury eventually required surgery, Knapp toughed out the pain and taught a class later that evening, saying she did not want to disappoint her students, who come from as far as Hollister.
“I’m old enough to have been through a few things,” she said a week after the attack, her arm in a cast. “You go with the bumps.”
However, it is still unclear what happened in terms of police response to the incident, and why it took two hours to respond to the call.
Knapp said that she was told a witness had called 911, and the dispatcher said “they don’t respond to dog-on-dog calls.”
The Gilroy Police Department denied a public records request by the Dispatch for 911 tapes of the incident, saying that they are related to investigations being conducted by the Gilroy Police Department and the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney.
However, they did release a Computer Aided Dispatch report that indicated that a witness called police at 3:15 p.m. to report that two pit bull terriers had attacked a dog on the levee and knocked over the owner. The report stated the witness hung up the phone at some point and did not answer the phone when dispatchers called back.
The report indicated Knapp called police at 3:32 p.m. from her home to describe the incident, inform them that she was injured and say that she would be taking her dog to the veterinarian.
Sgt. Wes Stanford said police sometimes do respond to “dog-on-dog” calls when it involves a “vicious dog” and said it appeared police did not respond because of multiple, more serious incidents happening simultaneously. Those calls included an all-unit response at 2:43 p.m. to a report of a man at Tacos El Grullense, 251 First St., who allegedly threatened to shoot someone at the restaurant for not giving him change. Police arrested the man on charges of a parole violation and making terrorist threats.
Then, officers responded to a suicide warning at 3:25 p.m. and a fight at 3:35 p.m., he said.
Police eventually went to Wren Avenue and Uvas Park Drive at 4:57 p.m., but they did not see the pit bulls in the area. An officer contacted Knapp one more time at 5:24 p.m.
Despite Knapp’s concerns of safety, she did not fault police.
“I realize it’s hard,” she said. “You can’t always catch a dog.”
At the same time, she wanted to ensure that the loose pit bulls did not harm anyone else.
“I was more concerned for other people out there,” she said. “I was glad no one else was hurt.”
