SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A woman was attacked and suffered serious injuries over the weekend in Santa Clara by an off-duty police dog.
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Melissa Silva, 42, was walking her small Pomeranian, "Chapo," when a Santa Clara police dog ambushed them on a local soccer field, according to reporting by KTVU. The dog was off-leash, reportedly doing some training with an officer.
Silva wound up suffering several puncture wounds to her left arm, and despite being released from Santa Clara Valley Medical Center on Sunday, she might need to go in for further treatment, even surgery.
The dog reportedly attacked Silva without provocation and it took her completely by surprise. She sustained her injuries while trying to keep her much smaller dog out of reach from the bigger dog's grasp.
It took 45 seconds before the officer managed to extricate the attacking dog from the situation, Silva told the station.
While the Santa Clara Police Department did not respond to KCBS Radio's request for comment at the time of publication, the department did tell KTVU that the soccer field where the incident took place was "not open to the public at the time."
"While conducting off-leash training, a person and their dog unexpectedly entered the facility through the closed and latched gate," the statement said, as reported by the station. "The police K-9 immediately ran towards the person and their dog. The person picked up her dog and struck the police K-9 in the head resulting in an unintentional bite to the person’s upper arm."
This is the first time the dog committed an "unintentional bite" in the four years of working with its handler, the station reported.
This is not the first time an unsuspecting person has suffered a serious injury at the hands of a police dog. A recently published in-depth analysis of Bay Area law enforcement by KTVU found that several departments use dogs to bite people.
San Jose had the highest number of recorded bites in a five-year period, at 167, followed by Richmond at 84. Other departments that rely less on police dogs to bite suspects had far fewer, like San Francisco at just two bites in the last five years and Oakland at 13.
And the problem is not unique to the Bay Area. Vicious attacks from police dogs happen nationwide, and can even in rare cases lead to death.
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