Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan sued by victim of vicious pit bull attack
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cesar Millan in a January 2013 file photo. (2013 Getty Images)
A nurse in Florida is biting back at the Dog Whisperer.
Alison Bitney, a critical care nurse from Florida, has filed a 27-page lawsuit against Cesar Millan — whose dog training show, “The Dog Whisperer,” airs on the National Geographic Channel — over a pit bull attack in September 2014.
According to her suit, Bitney was attacked by a dog named Gus at the home of John Vazzoler in Santa Clarita, Calif., and was left with "disfiguring open wounds, deep muscle and tendon lacerations” as well as fractures in the bones of her left arm and “permanent loss of feeling and function in her left hand."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The attack on Sept. 23 took place six days after the dog had been released by Millan’s Dog Psychology Center in Santa Clarita.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Jen Woodward, the Center’s director, said that Gus’ owner had removed the pit bull "against the strong advice and objection of his trainer."
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"When the dog's owner fell behind on monthly payments to keep it housed at the Dog Psychology Center, ” the complaint reads, “the center prematurely released the known vicious and dangerous pit bull back into the public domain and entrusted it to someone with no training or experience in the handling of vicious and dangerous dogs."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Named as co-defendants in the suit are Millan, the Center, Vazzoler and the woman who appealed the Texas judge’s order.
Gus was returned to the Center after the attack on Bitney, and late last month, according to the Courthouse News Service, a Los Angeles’ Superior Court ruled that the dog should be put down.
It isn’t the first time Gus has been on death row.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In February 2013, according to the lawsuit, a judge ordered the dog to be killed after it attacked a dog trainer in Katy, Texas.
The trainer underwent a week’s worth of reconstructive surgery, which included the placement of a plate and a pin in her arm, after the 20-minute attack.
The dog’s death sentence was appealed, and the Dog Psychology Center agreed to try to rehabilitate the dog.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is also not the first time around the lawsuit mill for Millan and the Dog Psychology Center.
The former director of the facility, Adriana Barnes, claimed in a lawsuit filed in L.A. County court last year that a runaway llama ran her over while on the job.