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American Morning
Trial Focuses on Background of Dogs
Aired February 21, 2002 - 08:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Day two of the highly publicized dog mauling trial in Los Angeles. The focus has moved now to the background of the dogs. Were they bred to be killers? Did their owners know they were that vicious?
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez reports now on the prosecutor's strategy to prove that the dog owners ignored all the red flags.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bane and Hera, Presa Canario dogs even the vet, who was hired to vaccinate them, feared.
DR. DONALD MARTIN, VETERINARIAN: It was just a bomb waiting for it to explode.
GUTIERREZ: Dr. Donald Martin testified on a danger scale from one to 10, he rated Bane a nine. He called him an alpha male, aggressive and dangerous, and says for the first time in his career, he wrote a warning letter to a dog owner.
MARTIN: I just basically said that these dogs are huge. They certainly are animals that could cause serious problem in any community.
GUTIERREZ: Dr. Martin says he cautioned Marjorie Knoller not to take the uncontrollable animals to her apartment in San Francisco.
MARTIN: That has to be as hopeless as it comes. You know big dogs need big room.
GUTIERREZ: The prosecution says Knoller, accused of second degree murder and husband Robert Noel, charged with involuntary manslaughter, knew the dogs were dangerous long before 33-year old Diane Whipple was mauled to death.
JAMES HAMMER, SAN FRANCISCO DEP. DIST. ATTORNEY: The defendants had knowledge of a dangerous character of these dogs, that they were put on notice.
GUTIERREZ: The prosecution called the dogs' previous owner, Janet Coumbs to the stand. Coumbs said she had hoped to start a dog breeding business with California inmate Paul "Cornfed" Schneider, whom the prosecution says has ties to the Aryan Brotherhood.
The business would be called "Dogs of War", but she says the plan never materialized. Coumbs says Bane's was a lovable dog who chewed through fences and restraints.
JAXON VAN DERBEKAN, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: She invited Bane into her house and that Bane gave her a Mother's Day present by basically going around her house and tearing up the place and relieving himself on her floor in various places, but she still loved him.
GUTIERREZ: Hera, on the other hand, created problems.
VAN DERBEKAN: She felt that Hera was very aggressive and that she told Noel and Knoller that Hera should be put down and not leave her property.
GUTIERREZ: Defense Attorney Nedra Ruiz.
NEDRA RUIZ, KNOLLER'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Many times dog behavior is a subjective thing. What some person might perceive as a threatening lunge, others might perceive as a greeting.
GUTIERREZ: Coumbs testified despite her warning, Knoller wanted the dogs and threatened her with a lawsuit if she didn't give them up. So the dogs ended up in their new home in the city right down the hall from Diane Whipple.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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