The owner of a pit bull mix who fatally mauled a toy poodle in Santa Monica has been identified, and authorities are evaluating possible charges in the death.
The attack happened around 5:30 p.m. Friday near Main and Strand streets, not far from shoreline, according to the Santa Monica Police Department.
A gray-and-white pit bull attacked the 11-year-old toy poodle, who sustained fatal injuries, police said. One of the poodle’s owners was also bitten while trying to save the dog, according to police.
The pit bull owner fled the scene on foot with the dog, and his image was captured by security cameras, police said.
The owners of the poodle, named Dublin, said the pit bull’s owner should be held accountable for failing to prevent the attack and for fleeing the scene afterward.
The incident happened less than two blocks from where the poodle’s owners, Alyssa Kluge and Christopher Dietrick, live.
“This is a walk we take three times a day,” Dietrick said. “We were walking home with Dublin. As we were walking, a man was not paying attention; he was leaned into the passenger window of a car, and the pit bull mix lunged across us, got a hold of our Dublin. It was very violent. There was a big scuffle. I kept punching the dog.”
The man then grabbed his pit bull and “took off running,” Dietrick said.
A good Samaritan drove the couple and Dublin to an animal hospital, but Kluge said, “My baby died in my arms.”
“I got him on St. Patrick’s Day more than 11 years ago, and he was aptly named Dublin,” said Kluge, who raised the dog since he was 10 weeks old.
Witnesses said the pit bull’s owner, speaking with an English accent, shouted that someone was going to kill his dog as he ran up Fourth Street and into an apartment building in the Ocean Park neighborhood.
Following days of seeking public help, the SMPD shared an update on Wednesday morning stating that the owner had been identified. Police did not provide his name, however.
Police said under current law, several dog-on-dog attacks and related violations fall under civil or misdemeanor-level offenses, including failure to control a dangerous animal, or failure to provide information following a dangerous bite.
The Santa Monica city attorney was identifying any municipal or criminal violations that might be applicable to this attack, officials said.