Lillian’s Law used in Milam County dog attack arrests

MILAM COUNTY, Texas (KRHD) — Two people were arrested on Monday in connection to a Rockdale death from last December. Milam County Sheriff's Office investigators say Lillian's Law played a key role in the arrest.

• The Milam County Sheriff's Office arrested 61-year-old Joel Rubio and 65-year-old Terri Ann Frank on Monday in connection to the death of 88-year-old Delores Woolverton.
• Seven dogs mauled and killed 88-year-old Delores Woolverton last December.
• Police used Lillian's Law — a law that holds dog owners responsible for dangerous dogs to make an arrest.
• The suspects were taken into custody and are facing a 2nd degree felony charge of Attack by Dog Resulting in Death.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

“Wow. It’s just really sad. It's really sad that that happened to that person,” Cameron resident, Michael Moore said.

Ezekiel Ramirez

The Milam County Sheriff's Office arrested two people on Monday for the death of 88-year-old Delores Woolverton, who was killed last December.

“We got a call that there was a potential of a woman who was dead and potentially surrounded by dogs, so we responded out there, found the woman was dead and surrounded by a pack of dogs. That's when we began to investigate this incident,” Milam County Spokesperson, Brett Eberhart said.

Ezekiel Ramirez

Investigators determined her death was due to a dog mauling.

This allowed police to use Lillian's Law, which holds owners responsible for dangerous dogs, to make an arrest.

“80% of the time when the dogs are reactive or aggressive, it's usually the owner's fault more than is the dog's fault,” AJ’s Dog Training and Boarding owner, Aujanea Walton, said.

15 ABC spoke with a local dog trainer, who says neglect and abuse are the most common reasons for a dog to act this way.

Ezekiel Ramirez

“If maybe there's in-house abuse, there's too much yelling, there's, you know, abandonment, the dogs can pick up on that and then they become aggressive as well,” Walton said.

And she says owners must ensure their pet is safe to be around.

Ezekiel Ramirez

“Dogs will always be dogs. Dogs from the littlest dogs to the biggest dogs have the instinctual to want to kill and to bite, but typically the owner is the ones who kind of kick the instincts of how they should be and things of that nature.”

15ABC asked Moore who would be impacted if neighbors aren’t responsible with their dogs.

“The whole community, you know what I'm saying? If you're not responsible, it's the whole community that knowing that we have dogs or animals out there that can attack and hurt our elderly. That could be my mother or my father or my children getting killed for my animal that wasn't probably trained or locked up.”