SAN ANTONIO – A victim of a vicious pit bull attack is calling for tougher ordinances and stricter enforcement of pet laws in San Antonio.
Walking across her Northwest Side front yard Wednesday afternoon, Doris Mixon-Smith gestured toward a flower garden and recalled how she was mauled by her neighbor’s pit bull March 6.
“When I looked up, he was coming across my daddy’s plant right there,” she said. “And the rest is history.”
With Mixon-Smith’s arm in the dog’s grasp, she tried to get into her home.
“I was trying to get in there to get my gun,” she said. “Yeah, I have a license to carry a gun.”
A neighbor managed to break the dog’s grasp, and police arrived and shot the dog to death. Mixon-Smith’s arm was severed above the elbow and she had deep bite wounds on her face.
“I know why I’m still here, because God left me here to take on the city ordinance about these pit bulls,” she said.
Mixon-Smith said that she is in discussions with her city councilman about toughening ordinances and stricter enforcement. She said that this is about “responsibility, community safety and an obligation we have to each other.”
“I don’t want people’s dogs taken away from them. I just want them to be responsible citizens,” Smith said.
Last Friday, the dog’s owners, Alphonso McCloud and his wife, Stanyelle Miles-McCloud, were convicted on dangerous dog attack charges. On Monday, McCloud was sentenced to four years prison. His wife was given 10 years’ probation.
“Because of the God that I serve, I can’t be angry. I have to forgive,” Mixon-Smith said. “There won’t be closure until I get to heaven and get a new arm.”