About two weeks ago, KMPH reported on a 59-year-old man being mauled to death by dogs in California. Now, the owner of those dogs is sharing his side of the story.
Victor Carranza expressed he's incredibly sorry for what happened to Hutch Barry. He extended his heartfelt condolences to the family and repeated several times how apologetic he is for what happened.
“I went down to the police station that he told me – that’s when he told me that the man passed away, and I just started crying. It was something that just crushed me down. I felt so bad. Someone had lost his life," said Carranza. "It was just a horrible day.”
He also wanted to talk about something else: he says all five of his dogs died in the care of animal control after the incident.
Carranza says his purebred English bulldogs were good, gentle pets. He showed KMPH several videos of them happily interacting with children, playing on the beach and running around through the woods. The oldest dog had been with Carranza for about 10 years; the youngest was about a year-and-a-half old, he said.
“My dogs weren’t vicious like people are saying," said Carranza. "They were loving. We loved them like family members – they were treated like family members. I would take the dogs wherever I could, whenever I could.”
Selma Police Chief Rudy Alcaraz also said the dogs seemed to be well-mannered prior to the incident, and that Carranza appeared to be a perfectly attentive pet owner. They’d had no incidents reported before this, no reports of escaping the house and the dogs appeared to be well cared for, Alcaraz added.
But on July 31, Carranza’s five bulldogs somehow escaped from the house. They’d been kept inside, not in the yard, and the Selma Police Department says it doesn't know how the dogs got out. Carranza believes someone may have broken into his house; he says the front door was damaged and the doorknob was in the locked position, despite the door itself being wide open.
Once the dogs got out, police say all five crossed the street, ran three houses down and attacked two people walking through the neighborhood. There's also some confusion over a sixth dog. Police on scene and eyewitnesses both mentioned six dogs being involved in the mauling, but Carranza only has five, and only five dogs were taken into custody.
Barry was bitten and died of blood loss, Alcaraz says. His sister-in-law tried to save him but was unable. She wound up with a bite on her hand and some bruises. When Selma Police responded, Alcaraz says they showed up to a "hectic" scene.
They were all aggressive,” said Alcaraz. “Even as the officers tried to render aid, [the dogs] were still aggressive. They would retreat and then re-engage. It was a fiasco.”
Carranza says he was at lunch when he got the call his dogs had gotten out and been involved in an attack.
“My heart just went – like me losing all my senses. I just couldn’t believe it.”
Officers tried Tazing the dogs, but it didn’t work, and appeared to make them even more agitated, Alcaraz said. They also shot at the dogs with bean bag rounds, a less-lethal method shot from shotgun-style guns. Eventually, animal control officers with an area shelter were able to capture the dogs.
Two of the dogs were taken to the hospital immediately; one died there, one had to be euthanized; the other three dogs were taken to the animal control site, but died shortly after arriving, the police chief said. A veterinarian performed an autopsy on all five dogs and found four died of heat stroke and one died of strangulation, though the police department says it isn’t sure exactly how that happened.
Carranza says he already worried about his dogs' health as they were being taken into custody because he could see there were showing signs of heat distress or heat stroke. Video shows the dogs panting with tongues that had turned blue in color, as Carranza pleads with the animal control officers and police to let him give the dogs water and help cool them down.
"That’s why I said, 'Please, let me cool them down, let me cool them down.' They were like, 'No, you have to give them away, you have to let them go, you have to let them go.' I told the animal control officer, 'You know they’re going to die.' He just looked at me and said, 'Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.'"
That same video shows Carranza questioning who opened his front door and shows him bringing at least two of his dogs out of the house — one he carries out and one he walks out on a leash.
The police department says it wishes things could have been different but emphasized the dogs had to be taken in. The chief says the veterinarian who performed the autopsy mentioned the exertion from the mauling incident could have overworked the English bulldogs, a breed notorious for health issues.
Carranza says although he's upset about his dogs passing away, he primarily wants to express how sorry he is for the victims of the attack.
“I’m just so heartbroken," said Carranza. "I’m just really, really, really sad. I mean, I still can’t – talking about this just brings me back to that same day. I’m just trying to move forward. I feel sorry for everything. I wish that day would never, ever happen.”
KMPH asked Alcaraz, who owns two dogs himself, whether there’s any lesson to be learned from this incident.
“They'll get out sometimes, it happens. Even the most responsible dog owner - things happen, they get out. But we're responsible for our own animals. We just have to be extremely careful. And the more dogs you have, you'll have to put in additional safety measures to ensure they're constantly secure,” said Alcaraz. "This is an extremely rare incident and absolutely unfortunate. There's really no good that's come of this. But dog owners, you have to be mindful of keeping additional measures to make sure they don't get out."