SAN ANTONIO — The life of San Antonio's Buddy the Dog was at least temporarily spared Friday morning.
Only three days after city attorneys pushed to have the dog immediately destroyed, they reached an agreement with the attorneys for Buddy's owners, promising that the dog would not be harmed while the owners pursue an appeal of a December municipal-court decision to have the dog euthanized.
The 6-year-old golden retriever mix has been held in Animal Care Services' Brooks City-Base quarantine facility since early November, when he either scratched or bit a 9-year-old girl in the parking lot of a Northwest Side apartment complex.
Homer Mojica, Buddy's devoted, 83-year-old co-owner, said the dog was on a leash and scratched the girl after she scared him by screaming in his face. The girl's mother has testified that the attack was unprovoked, and said the girl's injuries - a cut on her lower lip, a gash on her right cheek, and a scratch across the lower lid of her right eye - were produced by bites, not scratches.
Buddy has been described by Mojica's neighbors as a friendly dog with no prior history of aggressive behavior, but during a December 11 hearing, Municipal Court Judge Daniel Guerrero ruled that the case met the state's “serious bodily injury” standard which allows dogs to be euthanized.
Buddy's survival since then has hinged on a temporary restraining order obtained by Michelle Maloney, the lead attorney for Mojica and his wife Kathryn.
At a Tuesday district-court hearing to determine whether the TRO would continue while Maloney appeals Guerrero's decision, city attorneys employed every possible tactic to get the restraining order immediately dissolved.
They challenged the jurisdiction of the hearing (arguing that the case should have gone to county rather than district court) and made an issue of the fact that Maloney served the restraining order directly to a city attorney rather than with the city clerk.
District Judge Cathleen Stryker, however, extended the restraining order for three more days until a Friday hearing could settle the jurisdictional question.
The Friday agreement, filed less than an hour before the hearing was scheduled, marked a major reversal by the city.
That shift seems at least partly because of public outcry over the city's apparent rush to shut down the case. Animal-rights activists emailed city officials, set up a legal fund to help the Mojicas, and, in one case, established an online petition drive that produced more than 1,000 signatures in a span of 24 hours.
Maloney said Friday she plans to appeal the constitutionality of the “serious bodily injury” law, which does not take into account whether or not the dog was provoked, and provides dog owners with no opportunity for appeal. She also plans to meet with city officials in an attempt to find a workable solution to Buddy's case.
ggarcia@express-news.net
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