Oakland man tried to give up ‘un-handleable’ dogs prior to fatal mauling, animal control officer testifies

OAKLAND — The owner of three dogs that mauled a man to death in September had previously tried to give the 100-pound canines away because they were “a problem” and “un-handleable,” an Oakland animal control officer testified Monday.

Brendan Burke, 58, even allegedly considered having the dogs euthanized in the months before they fatally mauled Burke’s childhood friend, Robert Holguin, in his driveway on Sept. 1. The details were revealed at a key evidentiary hearing Monday, during which an Alameda County judge ordered Burke to stand trial on a single felony charge of failing to control animals killing a human.

Burke has pleaded not guilty, and he remains free on his own recognizance.

On Monday, new details emerged about concerns that Burke appeared to harbor about the three dogs — each of them half-Cane Corso, half-Napoleon Mastiff — in the months prior to the attack.

Burke told a city animal control officer after the mauling that he had repeatedly tried to give the dogs to Rocket Dog Rescue, a Bay Area nonprofit organization that seeks to save abandoned and homeless pets from being euthanized in shelters. His attempts failed, however, when the organization stopped responding to him, the officer testified.

The nonprofit’s founder, Pati Boucher, told this newspaper Monday that her organization was never contacted by Burke, and suggested that he may have instead tried to give the dogs to Oakland Animal Services. A message sent to that agency was not immediately returned.

A friend, Gary Silva, also testified Monday that he accompanied Burke “several” times on trips to have the dogs euthanized. The cost of the procedure proved to be a limiting factor, Silva said, and Burke returned each time to his house with the dogs.

“He couldn’t handle them,” Silva testified. “He wanted to get rid of them.”

At times choking up while testifying, Silva recalled the moment that he and Holguin realized the dogs had escaped Burke’s backyard, with Holguin listening carefully in silence before warning, “the dogs are out.” Immediately, the two men ran for safety — Holguin jumping into his SUV in the driveway and Silva jumping onto a banister along the front porch.

Silva said he first tried to beat the dogs away from him with a plastic coat hangar, prompting the dogs to retreat to Holguin’s SUV. Silva then ran across the street to warn a woman and her two children to run.

For some unknown reason while Silva crossed the street, Holguin got out of the SUV and said “I got it,” Silva recalled. Moments later, Holguin began screaming as the dogs — grabbing him around his legs and torso — dragged him toward the back of the driveway, Silva testified.

The three dogs relented only when Silva beat them away with a broom handle. At that point, an animal control officer, Julian Taizan, arrived and kept the dogs at bay behind the back fence. In the process, Taizan had to hit one of the dogs with a steel baton after it lunged at him.

Holguin, who had been severely bitten and whose scalp had been ripped off, was pronounced dead outside the home located at 1609 36th Ave. in East Oakland, according to court testimony.

Silva — who had lived at Burke’s house for several months — said he had long been scared of those three dogs. He recalled watching in fear as they barked and growled at him whenever he peered at them through a window in the house. They were among six dogs living on the property, with the rest living inside and far better behaved.

When questioned by Burke’s defense attorney, Silva said he had never been attacked by the dogs. And Taizan, the animal control officer, added that Burke never told him that the three backyard dogs had been violent or tried to attack anyone.

Yet those dogs had a history of escaping from Burke’s backyard.

The day before the attack, they wriggled their way loose and onto the driveway, according to court testimony. Burke managed to corral them, and both he and Holguin mended the fence using cinder blocks and wire, an Oakland police officer testified Monday.

Burke’s attorney, Jena Mayfield, highlighted how no one saw the dogs attack anyone before the September mauling. She questioned Holguin’s decision to leave the SUV, suggesting he didn’t take “all reasonable precautions that a reasonable person would have taken in the same situation” — a key requirement the judge had to consider Monday.

Prosecutor Matthew Delbridge instead suggested that Holguin may have gotten out of the car to ward the dogs away from Silva and the family across the street. “If anything, he was acting bravely,” Delbridge said.

“The defendant failed to use ordinary care in keeping these animals,” Delbridge added.

Even removing Burke’s dogs from his backyard after the attack was “a slightly eventful process,” Taizan said. The male dog living back there, which appeared to lead the attack on Holguin, tried to bite Burke while it was being removed from the property, the animal control officer said.

When the Taizan told Burke that the three dogs involved in the attack would be euthanized, Burke replied succinctly.

“Good,” Burke allegedly told the officer.