Gilroy - Scott Berri snatched the baseball bat from beside the front door. It was 11pm Sunday, and outside his Broadway Avenue home it sounded like a domestic dispute: a young woman screaming, a man shouting, the sound of slapping.
But when he charged outside he found not a young woman, but his son's 6-month-old kitten, Rocky, in a pit bull's clenched jaws. Its mewling sounded like a woman's scream.
"That dog was oblivious to everything," Berri said. "It was set on killing."
Afraid the dog would turn on him if he swung the bat, Berri watched helplessly as the dog snapped the kitten's neck. Its owner, a man, whipped the pit bull with a nylon leash: the slapping sound Berri had heard. But it wouldn't relent. Only after the kitten was lifeless, battered and limp, did the dog loosen its jaws. The man clipped on its leash.
Don't move, Berri warned him. The man hesitated for a moment, "like a deer in the headlights," Berri said. Then he bolted down Broadway Avenue, the dog sprinting alongside him.
Police caught the man a few blocks away. They took the dog, Berri said, and returned to photograph the kitten, just in case the incident goes to court.
So far, no charges have been filed against the man who fled that night, officer Maria Cabatingan said. The man says the dog belongs to his brother. Gilroy police are keeping the dog at their headquarters on Rosanna Street, where it has been classified as a "Level Two" dangerous dog.
Police are not permitted to euthanize Level Two dangerous dogs, though the owner may choose to do so by surrendering it to a shelter. However, if released, the owners are subject to new restrictions. The dog must be kept in an enclosure whenever it's not in the home, and has to be muzzled and leashed when out on a walk.
City codes already require all dog owners to keep their pets leashed whenever they're out of the house or back yard, Cabatingan said. In the front yard, squirrels and other dogs might send them running.
But the Berris say a leash isn't enough. They want pit bulls banned from Gilroy, or, short of that, only available to those who take special classes and earn permits.
"I'm just glad it wasn't a kid," said Kelly Berri, Scott's wife. Their youngest daughter is 6 years old.
Monday, Kelly Berri dug a hole to bury Rocky. The kitten lay curled up in a cardboard box, his fur matted and rumpled. He had been a birthday gift to the Berris' 9-year-old son.
"If he had walked by a half hour earlier," Scott Berri agreed, "my kids would have been outside, dumping the garbage."
Hours after the attack, the Berris were still awake, haunted by what they'd seen. It wasn't until 4am that Scott Berri was finally able to sleep.
Deserved or undeserved, Sunday's incident has rattled neighbors, now wary of the pit bull breed.
Emily Alpert covers public safety issues for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 847-7158, or at ealpert@gilroydispatch.com.
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