Officials: Wild dogs kill 4 in Mexico City park

OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press Published:

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Wild dogs mauled and killed four people whose bodies were found over the past two weeks in a park on the edge of Mexico City, authorities said Monday. In one case, a teenage girl frantically called her sister with her cellphone to plead for help as the attack took place.




"Experts have established that due to the gravity of the wounds, at least 10 dogs were involved in each attack," Mexico City prosecutors said in a statement.



"Several dogs are attacking us, help me!" the girl screamed. The call then stopped.


"What kind of dog can tear the skin from your whole arm and leave just bone and if it was an attack dog why didn't it attack her neck?" Ruiz asked. "What's most shocking is that one of her breasts was mutilated."

She said she later visited the place of the attack and saw no pools of blood. "There needs to be a thorough investigation," she added.

Antemio Maya, president of the Street Dog Protection association in Mexico City, also doubts that dogs could have killed the people found in the park.

"It's not the behavior of street dogs to kill humans," Maya said.

Maya said authorities should focus on sterilizing pets and educating people about pet ownership instead of spreading the idea of killer animals.

"The authorities trapped beagles, Maltese, poodles; can you imagine how long it would take for them to kill a person?" he asked.

"A lot of people get tired of their dogs and they simply throw them on the streets," he said. "This is going to create a terrible hate for street dogs and that's going to lead to even more abuse."

Mexico City Public Safety Secretary Jesus Rodriguez told Milenio Television that the bodies were not dumped in the area as some had suggested. He said the victims had bite wounds that were inflicted while they were alive and other after they had died.


At least 100 police officers were scouring the park in search of wild dogs. They had trapped 25 by Monday night, including 10 females, eight males and seven puppies. The dogs had been living in caves and crevices in the park, prosecutors said.




