Ruthi Got Bit - Santee, CA

Ruthi was returning from the laundry with a bag of folded clothes in her arms when the neighbor’s Chihuahua charged out of their site to the sidewalk that separates our 2 campgrounds and bit Ruthi on the ankle. There were 4 puncture wounds and blood. The owner came right over and picked up the dog and started apologizing. Ruthi just kept saying, “Your dog bit me! Your dog bit me!”

So, both the neighbor and Ruthi called the park office to report the dog bite. Then Ruthi went to a local “doc in a box” clinic for wound cleansing, tetanus shot and completing an official report to Animal Control. The owner said that the dog had never done this in the past.
One of the Camp Rangers came by to check with Ruthi’s injury and let her know the camp ground rule is the dog must leave. The wrinkle in this is that the owners had just come in as camphosts and if the dog goes they go too. The park would need to figure out how to fill the empty slot. Ruthi’s response was the park needed to do what it needed to do – it was the Park’s decision not Ruthi’s. But she did remind the ranger that this particular sidewalk is crowded with kids on the week-ends going from camp sites to the playground or pool which are just on the other side of the sites.

Given the choice of either the dog goes or they all do, the camphosts decided that they would leave. So, the park re-arranged other camphosts and filled the vacancy. A few days after they were gone another camphost shared with Ruthi that the dog owners were aware that the dog was unfriendly. When guests came over to their rig, the dog was relegated to a rear room in their rig and not allowed out to socialize with (or bite) house guests. Also the owners had grown children in the San Diego area who would not take the dog either. So, while that dog might not have ever bitten anyone before it was/is a dangerous dog to have in a public area.