Pit bulls' owner cited after attack

A dog owner has received multiple citations after five pit bulls attacked a woman as she walked along a South Side Chicago street, police said Saturday.

Christian Hidalgo received four citations for each dog, including for failure to give rabies shots and failure to maintain a dangerous animal, police spokesman Marcel Bright said.

"I feel responsible and I wouldn't try to defend what happened in any way," Hidalgo, 32, said about Thursday's attack. "It's a shame, and I'm extremely disappointed."

Gabriela Munoz-Lopez suffered bites to her face, head and legs in the attack, and she required several stitches at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

She says she's lucky to be alive.

The 32-year-old single mother said she had parked her truck and was on her way to pick her kids up from school when the pit bulls seemed to come at her out of nowhere.

"They started biting the end of my coat, and I threw my umbrella at them," she said. "They tore that up and came after me."

Hidalgo, who said the dogs had somehow escaped from his yard, ran out of his house as Munoz-Lopez screamed.

"He tried to get them off, but he couldn't," she said. "He was trying to pull them off and trying to pick me up, but the minute they got pulled off they started back again."

Munoz-Lopez got away when a motorist saw the attack and pulled his van up to the sidewalk.

"I jumped in," she said. "I'm just glad that he came along."

Hidalgo surrendered four dogs to authorities; one got away after the attack. Anne Kent, director of the Animal Care and Control department, said the dogs could be euthanized.