Kyle Police To File Criminal Charges Against Dog Owner

The City of Kyle Animal Control Officer (ACO) is finalizing a criminal investigation for the offense of Attack by Dog, a felony violation of the Texas Health and Safety Code, that will be forwarded to the Hays County District Attorney’s Office for review. The investigation stems from an attack that occurred on June 11th, 2015, and resulted in a Kyle woman being seriously injured and also the death of her pet.

Additionally, the ACO will be filing charges with the Kyle City Prosecutor against the dog owners for failure of properly registering their dogs with the City as required by City Ordinance.

The ACO is currently in the process of completing additional fact finding to support the investigation and intends to finalize the investigation shortly.

The charges are being filed against the dogs’ owners, Albanydia Mercado-Cruz, age 37, and Daniel Vera, age 49.

Kyle officers responded to a report of a dog bite/attack at around 6 a.m. on June 11, 2015. After arriving at the scene the officers learned that four pit-bull mix dogs had attacked the adult female and her dog during their morning walk.

The woman was transported by ambulance to an Austin area hospital for treatment. The victim’s dog was taken to an Austin area veterinarian where it unfortunately died during surgery for its injuries.

It is believed that the attacking dogs escaped from their fenced back yard earlier that morning.

Additionally, Ms. Cruz was arrested this morning for failure to appear in court regarding a citation issued on May 31 for dogs running at large and is currently in the Hays County Jail pending a bond hearing.

The pit-bull mix dogs were voluntarily surrendered to the City’s Animal Control Officer shortly after the attack and they were subsequently euthanized and sent for rabies testing. The tests were returned negative for rabies.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the people adversely affected by this incident,” said Barnett. “We rarely see a dog attack of this nature in our community and that’s a testament to care and attention our residents give to their pets.”