HERMISTON – A local family was outraged when a Hermiston police officer shot their 70-pound pit bull terrier in front of their house as their 10-year-old daughter looked on.

Officer William Jons shot the dog after it had attacked a neighbor’s chihuahua as it played with a little boy nearby, mauling the tiny dog nearly to death. The male dog was joined in the attack by another, smaller male pit bull. The dogs are owned by Hermiston neighbors Daniel Valdovino and Jesus Ruiz.

The chihuahua, which was rushed to a veterinarian by Valdovino’s wife, Jasmin, was later euthanized. The pit bull was treated for a neck wound and released to its owners.

The dogs were trying to attack the officer at the time of the shooting, said Hermiston police Sgt. Michael Marcum. He said the officer was scrambling to get away from the dogs, kicking and yelling at them as he tried to reach his car to grab a dog-catching pole to gain control of the animals as they lunged toward him, barking.

“It’s something that couldn’t have been avoided,” he said. “It’s not like he could have told the dogs, ‘time out, let’s move the little girl away.'”

The girl’s parents say the bullet, which passed through the neck of the pit bull and was later recovered in the yard by police, could have injured or killed their daughter. Ten-year-old Diana was standing 20 feet away at the time of the incident, they said.

“Why did he have to shoot him in front of my daughter?” said Jasmin Valdovino. That bullet could have hit her. Couldn’t they have used a spray or something?”

The sound of the gunshot drew curious onlookers from around the neighborhood. Nearby residents and business owners say the yard where the dogs are kept is frequently used for dog fights.

“A couple of times a week they get in a circle around those dogs and watch them fight,” said Vickie Koehne, owner of The Fitness Center located a half a block away. “You’ll see a group of guys pull up in their cars, and the kids are out there watching, too. It makes me ill.”

Neighbor Cherlyn Rodriguez said she’s seen people gather to watch the dogs fight while chained to heavy car tires in the yard between the Valdovino and Ruiz households.

“Maybe they’re just playing, but it looks like a dog fight to me,” she said.

Rodriguez said her husband called the police after the dogs had attacked the chihuahua and then threatened him as he tried to shoo them from his yard.

“What if it had been a little kid?” she said. “I think the officer did the right thing in shooting that dog.”

Hermiston Police Chief Dan Coulombe said there’s been no history of complaints about the dogs or dogfights at the home.

“If people are seeing problems there, we want to hear about it,” he said.

The two male pit bulls escaped their kennel by digging a hole under the fence. Another pit bull owned by the Valdovinos, a female with puppies, remained in the yard and did not take part in the attack on the officer.

The family insists their dogs are not a menace, but are beloved pets that play with their three young daughters and their friends. They deny using the dogs for fighting.

“We would never fight our dogs,” Daniel Valdovino said. “Sometimes the two males have their little arguments, but it’s not something we set up for entertainment or anything like that.”

The Valdovinos received a public nuisance citation for keeping vicious dogs.

Neighbor Juan Pacheco, the owner of the chihuahua and a friend of the Valdovino family, declined to press charges against the owners of the dogs that killed his pet.