Owner of dogs who attacked St. Paul girl formally charged with 4 misdemeanors

Court documents show a St. Paul man is facing four misdemeanor charges in Ramsey County Court after a pack of dogs attacked a seven-year-old girl last month in the city’s Frogtown neighborhood.

As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, police were called to the 600 block of Van Buren Avenue around 4:40 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8 after they received a report that five to seven dogs were biting a young girl.

A criminal complaint states the caller was the girl’s mother, who told police the girl had been walking home from a school bus stop with her father when five large dogs attacked the child.

Although the girl’s father hit the dogs – described as brown, white and gray in color – to get them off of the child, the document says they continued to attack her. The girl’s father said the dogs looked like his neighbor’s dogs.

Officers found the victim with bite wounds on her head and leg, but the dogs had already cleared out of the area. The girl was taken to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul for treatment, and although authorities said her injuries were significant, she is expected to survive.

After obtaining doorbell camera evidence from a neighbor, police said a witness identified the dogs’ owner as 37-year-old Marco Mendoza Landaverde.

The video showed the attack finally stopping after the driver of a black Nissan Rogue honked their horn, which the document says caused the dogs to run off. The driver – identified in the complaint as Mendoza Landaverde – then heads in the same direction of the dogs.

The next day, court documents say all of the dogs were taken into custody by St. Paul Animal Control.

According to Mendoza Landaverde, he let his dogs out without knowing the gate was open, and he was only able to provide rabies vaccinations proof for two of the five dogs.

After a check of license records, the document goes on to say he didn’t license any of the dogs, and he also didn’t apply for a permit which would allow him to have more than three dogs.

A few days later, all five dogs were declared dangerous, and were surrendered to Animal Control, where they were euthanized, according to the complaint.

The document shows two charges restraining an animal from inflicting bodily injury to a person, as well as two charges of rabies shot requirement, have been filed against Mendoza Landaverde, who was charged by summons. He has an arraignment scheduled for April 18.