Local dog owner speaks out after pit bull attack

A local woman is speaking out after she and her dog were mauled by a pit bull while walking last night in La Quinta.

“He was six years old and really just a real cutie pie. He didn’t deserve to go that way, that’s for sure,” Gina Nortica said.

She is fighting back tears after losing her dog Wednesday night. She says her Maltese Zander was attacked by a pit bull while they were walking on Victoria Drive.

“I picked my dog up and I was just trying to do that and the dog bit me several times,” Notrica said.

Her arm is wrapped in bandages from dog bites and says Zander was so severely injured, they had to put him down.

“They said he had a lot of puncture wounds and they said he was just too fragile to do any type of surgery,” she said.

Officers with the Riverside County Department of Animal Services say they were notified by a local hospital of Notrica’s wounds the next morning and took the pit bull when it was surrendered.

The owner says he wasn’t home when the attack occurred and doesn’t know what compelled his dog to attack saying it’s usually calm. He gave him to authorities nonetheless.

“I’m going to miss him and everything, but if they’re deeming him dangerous and everything, I can’t be having him around here,” Daniel Jaramillo said.

Officers say the dog will be euthanized.

“This is going to be hard. It’s like losing a family member,” Jaramillo said.

It’s the same feeling Notrica is going through and says all she wanted is the dog to be taken in to keep others safe.

“I just want people to be really, really careful. It was frightening and you read a lot of stories and I guess it could have been a lot worse,” she said.

Animal services say once they file their report regarding the attack it will become a civil matter between the dog owners where legal action could be taken.