An LA County judge ordered that a pit bull that attacked a woman in Burbank be spared euthanasia and returned to its owners.
In her ruling, Supreme Court Justice Alison MacKenzie ordered the pet owners, Nelson Grande and Sylvia Franco, to do the following to spare their dog Conan:
- Proof of rabies vaccination and licensing
- Rightly call him a cruel animal
- To remove him from the premises only while wearing a leash and muzzle
- To secure it in an enclosure or outdoor area where it cannot escape
“Although the court concludes that Conan is a vicious dog, it does not find that the City has established by a preponderance of the evidence that releasing Conan to Grande and Franco would pose a significant threat to the public health, safety and welfare, so Conan must be euthanized,” MacKenzie wrote.
The hearing stemmed from the owner’s Aug. 21 petition against Burbank after he deemed the 8-year-old pit bull-Labrador combination dangerous after it attacked Deborah Drissi in July. During the trial, MacKenzie heard testimony from all three parties. In his statement, Franco claimed that Drissi had provoked the attack. However, the judge ruled that the evidence proved otherwise. She also disagreed that the dog attacked Drissi to protect its owner.
“After a long and difficult fight, everyone who supported Conan is filled with deep gratitude,” said animal rights activist Shira Scott Astrof. “His life was spared, and for that we are deeply grateful. This victory extends beyond Conan – it represents hope for every dog wrongly targeted by a flawed system in desperate need of reform.”
