A gruesome scene awaited police on Feb. 16 after a man who was breeding pit bulls in Compton, California, was found mauled to death in his own backyard, KTLA reports.
Police responded to the home early Friday morning after receiving a phone call from a friend who’d visited the house and discovered the man’s body, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said. The 35-year-old victim, who lived alone, was found inside one of several kennels in the backyard.
Investigators believe the attack occurred Thursday evening between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. while the man was feeding his dogs.
“He was feeding the dogs, at which point maybe there was an altercation between some of the dogs, and [they] ultimately attacked and mauled the victim,” Michael Gomez with LASD’s Homicide Bureau said.
Authorities surrounded the victim’s roof, a neighbor’s yard, and an alley to enclose the five adult pit bulls and eight puppies. Helicopter video shows officers helping a woman climb out of a yard as the agitated dogs ran loose and started attacking each other.
“Preliminary information suggests that the deceased individual was involved in breeding and selling Pitbulls,” animal control officials said in a statement.
A neighbor saw two dogs being taken away from the home and said she never knew anyone lived in the residence.
“They were not even barking or anything,” April Ramirez told NBC Los Angeles. “It’s scary. It’s absolutely scary because I have a 7-year-old, and we were not aware of this.”
The victim’s father has agreed to sign over rights to the dogs to animal care and control for “impoundment and examination.”
An animal welfare worker hopes
the incident will serve as a lesson to a city that has yet to pass ordinances banning the ownership of unneutered or unspayed pit bulls. While many cities in California have passed these laws, Compton has not.