Tag Archives: Destiny Colon

by | February 9, 2010

Fontana church starts fund to help Destiny Colon and her family that were attacked by dogs

A church has established a fund to assist the family of a 5-year-old girl who was mauled by a pack of dogs in Fontana.

Apostolic Church in Fontana, the church Destiny Colon and her family attend, has agreed to accept donations while the girl’s mother, Josie Arellano, stays by her daughter’s side at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital.

“The family is in great need,” said Timothy Day, a Claremont attorney hired by the family.

Destiny suffered severe bite wounds, a broken rib cage and a punctured lung when four pit bulls and one pit bull mix escaped a yard and attacked Destiny and her family on Feb. 1.

One of the dogs was killed when it charged at an officer. The owner of the dogs surrendered the animals to Fontana police, who turned the animals over to the San Bernardino Animal Control Shelter.

Police were waiting until the surviving dogs are euthanized before submitting the results of their investigation to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, said Fontana police Sgt. Jeff Decker. The case might be reviewed as early as the middle of next week.

“(Detectives) still have some loose ends that they’re working on,” Decker said.

Destiny has been removed from a respirator and was listed in fair condition on Monday, said officials at the Loma Linda hospital. Doctors have not provided an estimate on when she will be released.

Destiny’s older sister, Princess, and her 6-year-old brother have been
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released from the hospital and are recovering at home, Day said.

Her sister is using crutches to move around. Her brother, who needed more than 200 staples to close up the wounds on his leg, has not returned to school.

Day said the family has not made any concrete plans on taking civil action against the former owners of the dogs. They’re waiting for Destiny and her siblings to recover and are also trying to obtain a copy of the police investigation.

“Then we’ll make decisions regarding how the family is going to move forward,” Day said.

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by | February 4, 2010

Destiny Colon, Fontana Dog Attack Victim Condition Inproves

FONTANA, Calif. — Fontana police say the dogs that mauled a 5-year-old girl who was put on life support will be euthanized.

A spokesman for Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital say Destiny Colon’s condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.

Fontana police Sgt. Jeff Decker says a pack of five dogs escaped from a nearby home Monday and attacked Josie Arellano and her four children. Destiny was the most seriously injured. Two children were bitten on the legs. Six-year-old Hector Perez needed 235 stitches and 7-year-old Princess Colon required 18.

One of the dogs was shot and killed when it charged an investigator. The others were caught and put in quarantine. Decker says they will be euthanized when the quarantine ends.

The dogs included two pit bulls, a mastiff and two smaller mixed breeds.

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by | February 3, 2010

Vicious Dog Owners must be held accountable

I re-posted this from the San Bernardino Sun with the hope that perhaps it might just make a difference. Dogs can be used like guns. A gun, you squeeze the trigger and you kill a person. A dog that’s trained to attack is the same thing. I changed the title a bit, but the end result is just as good. JD

Authorities should hit the owners of the dogs that viciously attacked small children in Fontana with the most serious charges possible.

The attack by four pit bulls and a pit bull-bullmastiff mix left 5-year-old Destiny Colon in critical condition and on a ventilator. Her 7-year-old brother had part of his leg chewed off and an 8-year-old also was injured.

The dogs escaped by going under a backyard fence to attack a mom and her children.

At minimum, the owners violated Fontana’s ordinance limiting owners to three dogs, and another requiring that animals be properly secured on a property. If police and the District Attorney’s Office determine the owners can be charged with failure to control a dangerous animal or even criminal negligence, we’re all for it.

There is no good reason to have five powerful and aggressive dogs on one site. Anyone who does needs to be held to full account when things go wrong.

An animal control officer speculated that the fact that one of the females was in heat might have played a role in triggering the attack. We urge all owners of powerful breeds to have them spayed or neutered, which greatly decreases the chance a dog will attack.

A 3-year-old Apple Valley boy was killed by the family pit bull last month. A pregnant Hesperia woman was seriously injured by her pit bull in October. A 17-year-old boy was attacked by a pit bull in Montclair in June.

We understand that it is the fault of
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owners and breeders that pit bulls have become so dangerous, responsible for nearly a third of fatal dog attacks over 20 years in a national study.

Those who accept the risk of keeping such dogs must be held accountable for the results.

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