Two dogs who attacked and injured four people and killed another dog since May were euthanized this week, according to Elmwood Park police.
The dogs escaped from a yard Wednesday and attacked both a man and his dog who were out for a walk, police said. The man went to a hospital for treatment, and the dog was sent to a veterinary facility.
The dogs, a pit bull named Nala and an Akita mix named Charlie, were owned by Meleina Teodoro, according to two lawsuits brought by the first three victims. Teodoro’s dogs had attacked two people in Palatine in May and two more people in Elmwood Park in August and September, according to police. Teodoro, who received citations from both Palatine and Elmwood Park, did not respond to requests for comment.
Elmwood Park Police Chief Frank Fagiano said he was alerted to the Wednesday, Sept. 29, attack just after a Zoom call with representatives of Cook County Animal Control, the Elmwood Park village manager and city attorney and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office regarding the dogs’ August attack on an Elmwood Park woman.
Teodoro’s dogs had escaped the yard of the home where she is living and attacked an Elmwood Park man and his dog, which he was walking on the 7700 block of Wellington Court, Fagiano said.
“They escaped from the yard and bit the dog and the man,” Fagiano said. “He went to the hospital, the dog went to the animal hospital. I saw some photos of his leg and arm that were bit and the dog looked like it had a chunk missing out of its rib cage.”
First attack in Palatine injured two, killed pet
In the first attack, May 24, Teodoro’s dogs attacked two Palatine residents, Amanda Ingram and Chase Braun, in Palatine, according to separate lawsuits filed by their attorneys on July 7.
In those attacks, Ingram’s dog Casper was killed and Ingram, Braun and Braun’s dog Kona were bitten and injured, the lawsuits said.
The May 24 incident also resulted in citations to Teodoro from the village of Palatine, where she was living at the time, according to the lawsuits, which indicated she moved to Elmwood Park.
Elmwood Park woman, her dog, hurt in second attack
In August, Aneta Heinz of Elmwood Park was walking her 4-year-old dog, Piper Jo, a retriever mix, when Teodoro’s dogs escaped from a yard and attacked her and her dog, injuring both, according to a lawsuit she filed Sept. 24 against the village of Palatine, Teodoro, and the owners of the Elmwood Park home where Teodoro and the dogs were living, Ricardo and Mishell Teodoro.
Heinz’s attorney, Michael Schostok, said Heinz was knocked to the ground and suffered injuries to her leg and tailbone.
After the incident, Teodoro received three citations and pleaded guilty, and received a fine of $1,750, according to Fagiano.
Schostok, who also is representing Ingram and Braun in their cases, said the village of Palatine is named in Heinz’s lawsuit because it did not do enough to ensure the dogs would not attack again.
Heinz’s Sept. 24 lawsuit, said her attorneys had asked the village of Palatine to humanely euthanize Teodoro’s dogs after the May 24 attack on Ingram and Braun, but Palatine officials did not pursue euthanizing them. Instead, they required Teodoro to get training for her dogs within 60 days and relocate them out of Palatine.
“The village of Palatine was simply moving the problem to another municipality,” the Sept. 24 lawsuit alleges.
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The Village of Palatine issued a statement Sept. 21 saying, “The Village sought the most stringent outcome that was supported by the law and local ordinances at the time of the dog bites in Palatine including criminal charges which remain pending. As to the administrative citations, to suggest that the dogs should have been euthanized would have been to ignore the law. The owner complied with the conditions of the court order and the dogs completed the required training that they were ordered to undergo.”
Owner gets 10 citations
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After learning of the new attack Wednesday, Fagiano said he and village manager Paul Volpe went to Teodoro’s home, where she voluntarily surrendered her dogs to be euthanized. She also was given 10 citations, five for each dog, he said, and has a Nov. 4 hearing.
Natalia Derevyanny, spokesperson for Cook County Animal Control, confirmed that Teodoro’s dogs were euthanized the next day.
On Friday, Schostok said his clients were relieved to learn that the dogs were euthanized, and said the lawsuits will proceed.
“They are very relieved to know that these dogs aren’t going to torture anybody else. They are relieved to know that nobody else is going to have to go through and experience what they went through at the mouths of these dogs,” Schostok said.
Fagiano said that his main concern was for the safety of Elmwood Park residents.
“You hate to see dogs put down, but these dogs were mean dogs. It is what it is,” Fagiano said.