Stockton has long been plagued by stray dogs, but the vicious mauling of a Weston Ranch woman has raised questions about whether the packs are a threat to public safety.
Dorrie Reyes was recently attacked by more than half a dozen wild dogs, her family said. She had been walking along a levee in the 800 block of Carrie Street when she was surrounded by the animals last month, authorities said.
Despite the unprovoked attack — as well as its brutality — police and experts downplay the threat of encounters such as Reyes’. They say the mauling, in which Reyes suffered more than 150 puncture wounds and lacerations, was an isolated incident.
“We have not been made aware of any other aggressive packs of dogs in the city,” Officer Omer Edhah, a police department spokesperson, told Stocktonia. “Animal Services continues to be proactive throughout the city in locating any roaming packs of dogs as time permits.”
Volunteers working to care for abandoned pets in Stockton say attacks by strays — whether individual dogs or packs of canines — are relatively rare. But they say dogs that often are abused and sometimes starving can be desperate and scared, and as a result, sometimes will exhibit signs of aggression. If approached, the animals may attack.
‘A dumping ground’
Jesse Mejia knows the problem of stray dogs firsthand. He founded Stockton Street Dogs, a nonprofit aimed at trying to ease the suffering of abandoned pets. Volunteers fan out around the city to leave food and water for abandoned dogs. When needed, the group arranges for emergency medical care.
And there are so many animals in need, he said.
“We have hundreds of dogs on the streets at a time,” Mejia said. “Stockton has become a dumping ground for people’s pets.”
Many of the animals were turned loose by owners who were unable to afford feeding them or simply didn’t want a pet anymore. Some dogs are believed to have been beaten, left chained up for extended periods, or trained to fight for sport and left badly injured in the process.
Typically, Mejia said, people can walk past stray dogs without much worry; just ignore them. But a starving or abused dog can be inherently dangerous, he added, especially if approached.
Mejia said his volunteers try to stay about six feet away when leaving food and water for a stray. If the animal has been abused, it can take months of closer interaction for it to regain trust in humans.
Reading a dog’s body language
To stay safe, Mejia said he pays close attention to a dog’s body language — especially the tail.
“A dog’s tail will tell you a lot about what is going on in the moment. A wagging tail is always a good sign,” he said. A tail between the legs is a sign of fear. And a tail straight up means the dog is on high alert; you are being closely watched.
Even if a dog doesn’t growl, it may still bare its teeth, even slightly.
“That’s a warning,” Mejia said.
Consider what happened to Reyes. There’s no indication she provoked the dogs she encountered, yet the attack was especially vicious. The canines tore into her arms and legs. She suffered bites to her head, neck, face and torso, according to a GoFundMe post from her family seeking help with medical expenses.
The attack ended only after neighbors heard Reyes’ cries for help and fought off the pack, her family said.
Stockton police and Animal Services personnel were called to the area. Reyes, who lost “a ton of blood,” was rushed to a hospital, where she was in surgery for six hours, family members said.
Aftermath of the attack
In the wake of the attack, police say Animal Services officers set humane traps and rounded up the dogs believed to have been part of the pack. At least six were captured in the span of five days after the April 23 attack. Edhah said officers remain on the lookout for others.
“We will continue to proactively monitor for additional feral or roaming dogs unrelated to this,” he said.
Experts say dogs may gather in packs, but they typically stay in one area during the day, roaming elsewhere only in search of food.
That’s especially true for dogs living in homeless encampments. Another nonprofit that looks out for strays, Hungry Tailz Rescue, does its best to care for dogs and cats living in the camps.
Like Mejia, Hungry Tailz founder Soledad Muñoz says the problem with dog packs is part of a larger issue of pet overpopulation in the area.
“When dogs are left unspayed or unneutered, dumped, injured, or living without medical support, you can absolutely see roaming packs, territorial behavior, disease transmission, and public safety concerns develop,” Muñoz told Stocktonia. “But I think it’s critical not to broadly characterize pets in homeless communities as inherently dangerous because that overlooks the root causes and unfairly stigmatizes a vulnerable population.”
And there is no denying the proliferation of abandoned pets.
“The larger concern is not simply ‘wild dogs,’ but the ongoing animal overpopulation crisis driven by abandonment, unaltered animals, lack of access to veterinary care and limited community resources,” Muñoz said.
Search for a solution
The problem recently was the focus of a San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors’ meeting. The board is considering an ordinance that would require the spaying and neutering of dogs and cats brought to the county-run shelter.
The proposal was spurred by Jill Antonini, development director for the Animal Protection League in Stockton, who painted a grim portrait of desperate, unwanted animals, living in constant pain and at risk of starvation.
Local shelters, she said, are so overwhelmed that some turn away residents bringing in strays. In those circumstances, shelter workers advise people to return the animals to wherever they found them, putting the dogs and cats back into the same terrible circumstances of living on the street.
“Every year, countless dogs and cats are born with nowhere to go,” Antonini told the supervisors. “Shelters are overcrowded, rescues are overwhelmed and there is simply not enough space for the number of unwanted animals being produced.”