Dogs Attack Trespasser Killing Him In The Attack
"Beware of Dog" is a sign that is posted on many private properties, commercial like private, that warn trespassers of the danger inside. However, many ignore such warnings, sometimes fatally as occurred early yesterday morning, when two rottweilers, "Oso" and "Hunter" devoured a 25 year old Nicaraguan man who, with two of his friends, were attempting to rob the Taller Zuñiga, in Cartago.

The man identified as Leopoldo Natividad Canda Mairena, was confronted by the two dogs, who police say were "bedeviled", repeatedly attacking the man, who later died in hospital from more than 200 bites, as firefighters used a water hose to move back the dogs while police officials recovered the body.

The attack occurred early Thursday morning. The gruesome images were carried on the morning television news broadcast, as viewers watched the dogs attack the man and kept police at bay.

Hunter and Oso are four years old and were trained as attack dogs, used to protect the property of the mechanic shop.

The shop's security guard said that the Nicaraguan man saw the dogs coming, as did his two accomplices, but the dogs were quick to respond to the intrusion and centred on him, easy prey, while the other two got away.

All police could do is stand by watching the attack and while firefigthers tried to push away the dogs, it took more than one hour to get to the man, who lay face down and powerless from the attack. The owner of the workshop and dogs, Fernando Zuñiga, was called in, arriving on the scene some 20 minutes later, but couldn't control the dogs either.

Police did all they could to distance the dogs from the attack, including firing shots in the air to scare off the dogs, but it didn't have any effect.

Many are asking why police didn't fire directly on the dogs. Walter Navarro, chief of the Fuerza Pública (police) supported the decision by his officers not to fire on the dogs, fearing that they could hit the man under attack.

Finally the dogs were pushed away from the attack by the fire hoses that had been aimed at them for most of the time of the attack.

Officials say the dogs will not be destroyed.