MAN HEAD-BUTTS PIT BULL, LOSES EAR

  • Published
  • By Tim Barela
  • Torch Magazine
BOULDER, Colo. --  When a man from Boulder head-butted a pit bull, the dog retaliated by biting half of the man's right ear off, police said.

According to witnesses, 36-year-old Edward Valdez started playing roughly with his friend's dog when the animal lashed out. The attack took place Aug. 19 near Boulder Creek Path in front of the public library on the 1000 block of Canyon Street, said Boulder
Police Department spokesperson Sarah Huntley.

"Several witnesses said the victim was being overly aggressive with the dog, grabbing it by the face and pulling it around roughly," Huntley said. "Then, for reasons known only to him, he yanked it by the ears and head-butted it. I guess the dog decided she'd had enough, and bit his ear off."

The 4-year-old female pit bull, Freya, belongs to Robert Heinrich of Longmont, a nearby suburb. By the time police arrived at the scene, they found 31-year-old Desarie Leonard crying, but the dog, the owner and the victim were gone.

Leonard said she witnessed the whole event and believed the dog acted in self defense. She told police that after the attack, Valdez, with his severed ear in tow, headed in one direction, while Heinrich and Freya walked away in the other.

Officers found Valdez a short distance away, bleeding badly and holding the bottom half of his detached ear. They took him to the Boulder Community Hospital, where doctors reattached the ear and released him later that same day.

When officers located Freya and her owner, they took the dog to the Boulder Valley
Humane Society, where she was held in quarantine under an "aggressive animals prohibited" law, Huntley said.

"Any animal that breaks a person's skin needs to be quarantined for 10 days to ensure that it doesn't have rabies," explained Lisa Pedersen, the Humane Society's chief executive officer.

Freya has since been released back to her owner, Pedersen said. She added that Heinrich won't face charges because Valdez, a transient, was nowhere to be found after being treated at the hospital. Without the injured man's official statement, no charges could be filed, she said.

"If police officers had been able to locate the victim, we would have continued the investigation further," Pedersen said. "But according to eyewitness reports, the bite seemed to be provoked anyway."