That attack happened around 8:30pm Tuesday on Tumbling Rapids near Hickory Downs in northwest Harris County.
Investigators say two pit bulls barged through a fence, got into a house through the doggie door and then attacked two Jack Russell Terrier dogs named Lucy and Jackson. Lucy was killed in the family home, and Jackson died at an animal hospital.
"It's just one of those things, they're in the backyard, you think that your dogs are safe, and your family is safe in your own backyard," the dogs' owner Tina St. Clair said. "You lock the gates, you do what you can and even if I didn't have a doggie door that could access, which is what they did, then they would've been killed in the backyard. Either way, those dogs were going to get my dogs."
Deputies later lured the pit bulls into a squad car. They used crackers to coax one of the dogs to get into the vehicle.
St. Clair's boyfriend, David Leachman, says they're lucky they weren't injured.
"I was at work and she was at work, and luckily, her son was working up at Walmart, and he didn't know. He's over at her ex-husband's house right now," said Leachman.
"The one dog was no problem at all. The other one was very scared, very stiff. You could tell it wasn't sure what it was going to do," said Asst. Chief Dep. John Laine with the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office. "So there were just a few tense moments while we were first making contact with the dog and getting the dog to actually get in the container and get in the car."
Investigators say they don't know who owns the pit bulls. They are expected to be taken to animal control.
Then around 11am Wednesday, another pit bull attack was reported at a home off Palmfree near Freeton in southeast Houston. Police investigating that scene say a neighbor's pit bull jumped the fence and killed a woman's much smaller family dog.
We're told owners of the dogs who were killed in the attacks may not have major recourse, unless they want to go to civil court. According to Texas law, dogs are considered property so when one dog attacks another dog, it is a much different situation than when a dog attacks a human, even though many pet owners consider their dogs as members of their family.
