A 66-YEAR-OLD man has died after being attacked by five pitbulls all at once whilst walking across his own land in Beniarbeig (Alicante province).
Hours after setting off for his allotment, the victim's son became concerned that he had not returned and went to investigate.
He found the man with horrific wounds on his limbs and head, consistent with having tried to fight off several attacking animals at once.
As there are no wild predators in the area, police quizzed the tenant of the nearest house, who admitted to owning five dogs classed as 'dangerous breeds', all pitbull and bull-terrier crosses.
None of them bore signs of blood, but one of them was soaking wet as though it had just been washed.
Police say none of the dogs was microchipped, and the owner had no council permit showing they were on the local register, nor any documentation for any of the animals.
He did not have any public liability insurance for the dogs, which is essential with certain breeds.
Local Police say the owner has committed previous offences of letting his dogs run loose, rather than on a maximum-length lead of two metres (6'6”) and muzzled at all times, and that they had attacked at least one person in the past.
The dogs were confiscated and taken into a shelter where one of them attacked a carer and destroyed its cage in the middle of the night.
According to police, pitbulls are not a pedigree breed, meaning the worst characteristics of their crosses can sometimes be inherited, leading to them being unhinged.
Unless pitbulls are properly trained by expert hand, they can become very aggressive and cause fatal wounds in humans.
This, together with the fact that the Beniarbeig dogs were in a herd of five, one of the pack automatically becomes the 'leader', typically the most aggressive.
If the post-mortem shows it was these five dogs who attacked the deceased and that his death was a direct result of his injuries, the owner could be charged with manslaughter.
