'Not our dogs:' Owner of 2 seized pit bulls denies his pets mauled woman

TACOMA -- Police say two pit bulls that attacked a woman in Pierce County were seized and are in the custody of animal control officers in Tacoma.

The dogs were picked up from a home just a block away from the smoke shop where dogs attacked a woman in her 60s on Friday as she was preparing to go in to get a soft drink.

Johnny Cannady, the owner of the two seized pit bulls, admits his dogs look like the ones caught on surveillance camera before the attack.

“I got two dogs that look like that, yeah,” he said Monday night.

But he added that the dogs that attacked the woman were larger than his dogs.



Despite his denials, Puyallup Tribal Police and Tacoma Animal Control took his two dogs into custody.

They’ll be placed into quarantine for the next 10 days, and animal control officers will observe them for aggressive behavior and for any signs they have been trained to attack, police said.

But Cannady says they’ve got the wrong dogs.

“I figure this is a witch hunt, they’re going for the closest dogs in the area. My dogs live down there, they look just like these dogs. I saw them on Q13 this morning, those dogs are huge. My dogs aren’t that big.”

Donna Berto, the woman who was mauled, will have the chance to try and identify the dogs. But she was trying to cover her face during the attack, and her son tells us she may not be able to make a positive identification.

When Q13 FOX News talked to her Sunday, before she was released from the hospital, she said it’s important to find the animals involved.

“If they're noted for doing this, I would probably say this a dog that should be put away. Because if it did it to me, it could do it to someone else.”

Cannady says he agrees that the dogs responsible need to be put away. But he says those dogs are still on the loose.

“It’s not our dogs. I checked them on Friday night, for any blood, any meat in their teeth, anything. Even a purse, because it looked like a purse wrapped around their neck. That’s what my wife told me, one’s got a purse and got a companion.

"Not our dogs," he said.