Small dogs chew off elderly man's toes

FOX 5 San Diego Staff
8:49 a.m. PST, February 11, 2011

SAN DIEGO -- Two small dogs are being monitored under home quarantine after chewing their eldery owner's toes off early Thursday, investigators said.

Police received an emergency call just before 5:30 a.m. from the man's housemate and caretaker. The caller said he found the victim, 72-year-old Frank Rose, lying in bed amid blood-soaked sheets at their home in the 200 block of West California Street in Mission Hills. The caretaker then discovered that his roommate was missing three left toes and that one of the men's two small dogs had blood on its snout, SDPD spokeswoman Andra Brown said.

"I pulled off the sheets and looked at his foot, and I dialed 911," said caretaker George Chilson.

Paramedics took Rose, who seemed confused about how he had suffered the injuries, to a hospital. Rose -- whose right leg and one of the toes on his left foot had been previously amputated -- suffers from neuropathy, a type of nerve damage that has left him with no feeling in his remaining foot, Chilson told police.

Officers filed a bite report with San Diego County Animal Control. After speaking with Chilson, Animal Control officers placed the two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels under quarantine at the house, department spokesman Dan DeSousa said. The dog's owners did not want the animals destroyed.

DeSousa said he had never heard of a case where dogs had gnawed off someone's toes before, but he said fatal dog attacks are relatively common.

"Accidents happen all the time, and in most cases we'll never know why, because we can't talk to the dogs," DeSousa said.

But Chilson said he believes the dogs were trying to heal a sore on Rose.

"Occasionally he can get a knick on his foot, and I think what happened is they found a scab on his toe and began licking and chewing," said Chilson."

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