Editorials

SAN FRANCISCO – The lawyer who owned the two dogs that attacked and killed a 33-year-old woman says the animals were generally gentle and showed no previous signs of aggression. But neighbors who say they called Bane, a Canary mastiff, “Killer Dog” or “Dog of Death,” often avoided the dogs and regret not reporting them. 

One unidentified neighbor, interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, said she went so far as to work out a schedule with Bane’s owner, Robert Noel, so their quarreling canines would not cross paths. 

“None of us ever filed a complaint, and that’s what makes me sick now,” said Cydnee Dubrof, a dog owner who lives a few doors away from Noel and his wife, Marjorie Knoller. “This woman died from our negligence.” 

On Friday, the 123-pound dog lunged at Diane Whipple, who lived next door to Bane’s owners in an upscale apartment building at Pacific Avenue and Fillmore Street. Whipple had just returned home from her job as women’s lacrosse coach at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. 

“Marjorie just about had the dogs completely in the apartment when the elevator door opened and our neighbor came out,” said Noel, who arrived home shortly after the attack. “Bane sort of perked up and headed down to the end of the hall. The woman had the apartment door open and was just standing there” when the dog attacked. 

Despite the efforts of Noel’s wife to come between the two, Whipple sustained deep bites to her neck and died at San Francisco General Hospital about five hours later. 

Bane, a mix of English mastiff and Canary Island cattle dog, was euthanized at the city’s animal shelter Friday night. The couple’s other dog, Hera, that was also in the hallway but, according to Noel, did not join in the attack, remained at the shelter. 

A shelter spokesman said the fate of 112-pound Hera, also a Canary mix, depended on the outcome of a police investigation. 

No charges have been filed against Noel, 59, or Knoller, 45, both attorneys who work out of their sixth-floor apartment. 

“He looked like the beast of death,” said Dubrof, who referred to Bane as “Killer Dog” to her friends. 

Another neighbor who worked out the dog-walking schedule with Noel said she began walking her dog in tennis shoes and bought pepper spray in case she ever needed to react quickly. 

She said she was particularly concerned when she began to see Knoller walking both dogs. She had doubts that Noel could control one dog; she didn’t think his wife would be able to control two, she said. 

“I literally would take my dog and walk back into my apartment” if she saw them, she said. 

Despite neighbors’ fears, Noel insisted that neither dog had ever shown aggression toward humans. In fact, Bane had in the past befriended a kitten, whom he would gently carry around in his mouth. 

Noel said he once owned a greyhound that nipped at children. “Inside the hour, that dog was at the vet with a needle in his arm,” Noel said. “If Bane had shown any aggression toward people, he wouldn’t have been here.”