VALLEY CENTER ---- The top official at the San Pasqual Indian Reservation said he was very concerned about the recent dog attacks in the Paradise Mountain area, but he maintains that the reservation was not to blame.
Allen Lawson, chairman of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians' Tribal Council, said he believes wild dogs ---- not dogs owned by residents on the reservation ---- attacked two horses and killed two dogs earlier this year.
"This is going too far ---- blaming the reservation," said Lawson, adding that dogs have also attacked residents and animals on tribal land but that the dogs in question haven't been linked to an owner on the reservation.
But that's disputed by a half-dozen residents and livestock owners on Sunset Vista Lane, just off tribal land.
They remain frustrated by tribal and county authorities who they said have not followed up with them on the attacks, which began in late January. Though no new attacks have been reported since March 18, many continue to carry shotguns and pistols for protection, they said.
Residents in the otherwise quiet community east of Valley Center believe the dogs, described as pit bulls, are owned by a man who lives just across from them, on the reservation.
After an attack by what Domingo Ortega described as three collared pit bulls, Ortega said he pinpointed a property for tribal and county authorities where the dogs came from.
Ortega said he chased the pit bulls from his Sunset Vista avocado grove early in March after they mauled his Labrador and Labrador mix. The two injured dogs died shortly afterward, Ortega said.
He and his Sunset Vista neighbors believe a man who lives on the property, whose name they do not know, owns the suspected pit bulls because he drove through the neighborhood shortly after the latest attack, March 18, asking if anyone had seen his dogs.
Lt. Dan DeSousa, spokesman for the county's Animal Control Department, said his agency has not received specific information about where the suspected owner lives.
Without that, he said, his agency cannot hold anyone responsible.
The department's director, Dawn Danielson, added that the agency is interested in resolving the matter and urged residents to contact it with further information.

Ownership uncertain
Tribal and county officials said this week they have investigated the string of attacks, which date to Jan. 31, but have not identified anyone who owns the dogs.
The last attack was March 18 when neighbors said three pit bulls went after a full-sized horse. The horse escaped without any major injuries when its owners scared the dogs off.
"The fact that (an attack) hasn't happened in several weeks, it's kind of a false sense of security," said Robin Hansen, whose miniature horse was mauled Jan. 31 by what she said were four pit bulls, at least one of which was wearing a collar.
"You do kind of stop thinking about it, until the next attack," she added.
Two Sunset Vista residents, Hansen and her neighbor Julie Picot, spoke in person with Wehay Quis Quis of the tribe's police force on March 19, they said. They described the residence they and Ortega believe the pit bulls came from, and Quis Quis gave them the distinct impression he knew that residence and the owner of the dogs as well, Hansen and Picot said.
"We left there feeling very good about it," Picot said.
Following that meeting, tribal security warned the man Picot and Hansen identified, as well as other nearby residents on the reservation, Quis Quis said. A letter was sent to all residents on the reservation telling them to keep their dogs locked up, the chairman noted.
"We have made it quite clear to them that, if they have any dogs that are loose, we are going to catch them and send them to the Humane Society," Quis Quis said.
No dogs were found at the home that was pinpointed, the tribal security officer said.
No one has seen or heard dogs at that home since, residents noted.

Dogs dumped?
Lawson, the tribal chairman, provided another theory on where the dogs responsible for the attacks may have come from.
He said dogs "dumped" on the reservation by outsiders may have formed a roaming pack that's attacked the other animals.
Lawson said dogs are regularly abandoned at the reservation by people from nearby cities and towns. Roughly 30 wild dogs roam the reservation at any given time, Quis Quis added.
Dumping dogs, whether on the reservation or in unincorporated county lands, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, said Lt. DeSousa of animal control.
He urged residents to contact the county with a detailed description of cars, including the license plate, and owners suspected of abandoning dogs.
Regarding the recent dog attacks, DeSousa said he doubts a pack of wild, feral dogs is responsible. Only dogs that are fed regularly by owners would be "robust" and strong enough to go after a full-sized horse, he said. Feral dogs typically go after much smaller animals, he added.

Still worried
While it's been weeks since that last attack, Kris Preston ---- the owner of the full-sized horse ---- said she's still concerned. She and her husband have strengthened the fencing around their 5-acre property, which borders the reservation. They placed chain-link fencing alongside the existing fence and put rebar into the ground to prevent dogs from digging their way onto the property, she said.
Preston and other residents said tribal and county officials responded quickly after the attacks, assuring her they would search for the dogs.
No one, however, has followed up with any of the residents, they said.
"I think because no one has seen them (since March 18) maybe it's been taken care of," she said. "But it does worry me."