California canine named Bruce, accused of 4 assaults, is euthanized after months of courtroom battles

After months of authorized wrangling, Ventura County Animal Companies on Wednesday euthanized a 3-year-old canine that they stated had attacked and significantly injured 4 individuals, together with a teen.

The most recent growth comes a couple of week after a U.S. District Court docket choose denied an emergency utility in search of to forestall the county from euthanizing Bruce, a 100-pound black and tan German shepherd combine.

The Santa Paula Animal Rescue Middle, a nonprofit that spent months preventing the county in courtroom, filed the emergency utility. An lawyer for the nonprofit didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The group, which had rescued the canine earlier than it was adopted three years in the past, stated on social media it had appealed the courtroom’s ruling to the ninth Circuit and referred to as on the county to delay euthanizing Bruce.

“The federal keep was lifted, however that doesn’t require the county to execute Bruce instantly,“ the group wrote on Fb. “It doesn’t forestall the County from agreeing to a standstill. It doesn’t forestall the county from returning to courtroom with a stipulated decision.”

However by Wednesday night, county officers stated Bruce had been put down humanely after the ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals denied the group’s movement.

“Choices involving the humane euthanasia of an animal are troublesome and complicated,” the county company stated in a written assertion. “They require us to stability compassion for animals with our duty to guard individuals and guarantee public security.

Animal providers officers stated that earlier than the canine was euthanized, Bruce’s homeowners had used the courts to problem their determination.

“Their challenges have been thought of by a number of courts, and 4 totally different judges have both upheld the underlying choices, or declined to overturn, modify, or in any other case intrude with the choice,” the animal providers assertion learn. “VCAS revered the judicial course of when courts positioned a brief keep, and we should respect that very same course of now that the keep has been lifted.”

The authorized battle over Bruce’s life started in March when animal providers held an administrative listening to to find out if the canine was doubtlessly harmful or vicious.

The listening to stemmed from a petition animal providers had filed that very same month in opposition to the canine’s homeowners, Claire M. Birgy and Erick Krasnoff, and cited 4 separate and unprovoked biting incidents courting again to 2024.

The primary reported assault occurred in February 2024, when Bruce jumped up and bit Alexander Vera, 16, within the face.

The teenager advised animal management officers that he was serving to the homeowners transfer out of their residence when the incident occurred, based on the petition.

In September 2025, Larry Graves reported to animal providers that the canine had bitten him a number of occasions in the correct knee, chest and left forearm exterior of a CVS retailer in Oxnard. Graves stated he was leaving the shop when the assault occurred.

In November 2025, Beatriz Ziegenfus advised authorities that she was passing the canine and his proprietor when it lunged at her and bit her on her proper forearm, knocking her down.

“I used to be taken to Ventura County Medical Middle due to the severity of the wound and blood loss,” Ziegenfus’ sworn assertion learn. “I needed to have surgical procedure — pores and skin graft.”

Animal providers additionally documented at the very least two assaults involving Felton Johnson in January and February. Johnson lived close to Bruce’s homeowners and advised authorities that Bruce, who was carrying a muzzle, knocked him down whereas trying to chew him. He advised animal providers that he was strolling together with his spouse, who makes use of a wheelchair.

After reviewing the incidents, which included pictures of the injured victims, animal providers decided in March that Bruce was a vicious animal and wanted to be euthanize.

Bruce’s homeowners filed an attraction with the Ventura County Superior Court docket on April 8.

Every week later, Ventura Superior Court docket Decide Mark S. Borrell sided with the county and ordered the canine to be euthanized. The order was non-appealable.

Nonetheless, the couple sought one other attraction, however a separate Ventura County Superior Court docket choose denied their request, stating they may not file a second attraction.

The couple then sought to place a keep on the order, however Borrell denied it, reminding the couple once more that his authentic order was non-appealable.

In Might, the Santa Paula Animal Rescue Middle entered the battle when it requested a federal choose to remain Borrell’s order whereas it sought a federal attraction of the case.

The rescue middle argued that Bruce’s homeowners ought to have notified and surrendered the canine to them earlier than relinquishing management to animal providers.

The federal choose granted the injunction. However final week, the federal choose lifted the keep after it dismissed the group’s federal appeals case.

The nonprofit filed an attraction with the ninth Circuit, requesting the county maintain off on euthanizing Bruce till the courtroom heard the case.

On Wednesday night, the Santa Paula rescue middle up to date its Fb web page to mourn the demise of Bruce.

“To us, Bruce was by no means only a case quantity, a authorized dispute, or a public controversy,” the group wrote. “He was one in all ours.”