A grand jury indicted Michael and Linda Attebury of Lubbock County on Tuesday for Attack by Dog – Serious Bodily Injury. The charge is described in state law as a third-degree felony.
In July sheriff’s deputies and EMS responded to Farm to Market Road 1729 at County Road 2700 which is east of New Deal. A man had been attacked by a pack of dogs and suffered serious injuries.
The sheriff’s department said at the time that officers would seek criminal charges and destruction of the dogs. One day after the attack, the sheriff’s department said six dogs were captured.
The man who was attacked recovered after a hospital stay.
Texas law says, “A person commits an offense if the person is the owner of a dog and the person … with criminal negligence … fails to secure the dog and the dog makes an unprovoked attack on another person.”
The law applies to a dog attack “that occurs at a location other than the owner’s real property or in or on the owner’s motor vehicle or boat and that causes serious bodily injury…”
Generally speaking, the maximum penalty for a third-degree felony in Texas, if there is a conviction, is 2 – 10 years in prison.
Related Story: Dog Attack Victim Released from Hospital
