The San Antonio couple whose two dogs allegedly mauled an elderly man to death had "used meat to train their dogs to be aggressive," documents show.
Christian Alexander Moreno and wife Abilene Schnieder were arrested after their American Staffordshire terriers killed Air Force veteran Ramon Najera, 81, last week.
Dogs Had a History of Violence
Najera died shielding his wife from the charging animals. She and two other men were injured in the attack, but have since been released from the hospital.The fatal ambush came after weeks of increasingly violent behavior by the animals that the couple allegedly trained them for, new information included in an arrest affidavit obtained by the New York Post show.
Police received multiple tips that Moreno and Schnieder had "been breeding the dogs and training the dogs to be aggressive with meat," the report states. The dogs — King and Snow — had a history of violence in the city, which Schneider claimed only increased after they were sterilized.
The city's Animal Control Services (ACS) spayed the canines after they had attacked two people in two separate instances, officials said.The move only made the animals more aggressive, and Schneider told cops they began fighting each other in the family's yard.
Canines were Kept Unchained in Unsecured Yard
She began recording "conversations with her husband regarding how dangerous the dogs had become," but allegedly continued to keep the canines in the unsecured yard without chains or other tethers.
The pets escaped from their yard Friday and gunned for Najera while he was walking with his 74-year-old wife, Janie, and a friend who they had been visiting. They latched onto Najera, even dragging him along the street, before they were chased away by city firefighters wielding pick axes. Janie was seriously injured, their friend was bitten on the hand and a responding fire captain was bitten in the leg.
The dogs, King and Snow, were euthanized by ACS later that night, Norwood said. A third, named Legend, was put down the next day after the animal was found roaming the street.
Moreno was arrested shortly after the attacks and faces felony charges of attack by a dangerous dog causing death and injury to an elderly. Schneider was arrested with the same charges Wednesday after police established that she shares ownership of the animals. The couple remained jailed Friday on $125,000 bond each, a San Antonio Police sergeant said.
Before her arrest, Schneider publicly apologized to Najera's family, but claimed the murder wasn't her husband's fault. She said they harnessed, tethered and locked the dogs behind the gate before they left the house, but the animals knocked down the fence while they were out — claims the arrest report contradicts.
Moreno also told investigators he had complied with the (ACS) guidelines to keep the animals leashed, but a witness video (shared below) showed the dogs were not wearing collars.
