Chica the Chihuahua was beloved by Joseph Taylor. He called the 9-year-old dog his “little girl.”
At Christmas 2020, Taylor was an out-of-work sign spinner and voice actor who, dressed as Santa, panhandled at the Old Globe yule tree — raising funds to treat Chica’s infected abscessed teeth.
Elsewhere in Balboa Park, Chica was dressed for the holidays, including as a Leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Everybody got to know Chica,” said Dina Taylor, Joey’s mother. “Everybody always asks where she is. She’s part of the community, you know.”
But tragedy struck at 9:15 p.m. May 13 — the day before Mother’s Day — when Chica died after a hit-and-run incident involving a young man riding two scooters.
According to Dina, 54, Chica was sitting on a plastic crate on Joseph’s wheelchair when a white scooter-rider crashed into the wheelchair, sending the long-haired dwarf chihuahua flying and also injuring Joseph.
Chica hit her head on a Little Italy curb or sidewalk and later died, she said. The young “guy with white sneakers” left the scene at 1619 Pacific Highway near the Jack in the Box off Cedar Avenue.
“We’re trying to find out who this a——— was that hurted us that hurted my son and … killed my dog but she wasn’t a dog to me she was my baby” Dina said in a text exchange.
Launching a campaign called “Justice for Chica,” including T-shirts with that motto and a repurposed GoFundMe page, the Taylors are investigating the incident but decry San Diego police inaction.
“We have no help from the police,” said Dina, struggling to pay rent on a Market Street apartment downtown and fearing homelessness as soon as this weekend. “The cops told us she’s just property — she doesn’t matter.”
Police didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Nina Thompson, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Humane Society, called the report “very heartbreaking.”
“We are so sorry for the Taylor family’s loss of their dog Chica,” Thompson said via email.
“While difficult to accept, by law, animals are considered to be property,” she said. “Without knowing all the details of this case, police could potentially investigate if any laws were broken by the rider of the scooters — such as riding on a sidewalk or if they were sober.”
Any recourse by the Taylors would likely be civil — a lawsuit against the rider.
“Once we find out who did this, I want to take him to court,” Dina Taylor said, adding a plea for financial help “because now we’re becoming homeless because of her dying and on top of that whatever we don’t need for our bill money if we could collect a decent amount of money we’d like to set up a reward … to find out who did this.”
Taylor said the young man was riding Bird scooters, but a representative of that company said: “It is our understanding that no Bird scooter was involved in this unfortunate incident.”
Jack in the Box media reps didn’t respond to a Times of San Diego inquiry on whether it had surveillance video from that night.
According to California-based Stimmel Law, state law prohibits cruelty to animals, but criminal sanctions are only for the state to enforce, not the individual owning the pet.
“A complaint may be made to the appropriate agency and they may take action, but that does not result necessarily in any recovery to the owner of the animal,” said a Stimmel article.
A lawsuit might recover the value of the animal under California Civil Code SB-225 Section 3341.5.
“It says if a pet’s death or damages are caused by the negligent or intentional acts of a person or the animal of another, the person or owner of the animal is liable for no more than $4,000 in non-economic damages,” says Azizi Law Firm of Los Angeles “For this rule to be active, the injury or death must occur on the pet owner’s property or its caretaker.”
Stimmel continued:
Practically speaking, you would have to demonstrate truly outrageous conduct on the part of the owner coupled with injury to you that resulted in need for medical or psychological treatment. If you were upset but did not seek professional help, you are unlikely to recover any significant damages.
Although there is no actual ruling on whether intentional infliction of emotional distress damages are available to an owner whose dog is attacked by another dog, the California courts have given economic relief to animal owners whose pets are injured by other humans.
A post by West Coast Trial Lawyers cited an example close to the Taylors’:
Let’s say you were out one night on a walk with your 11-year-old rescue mutt, which you love and consider part of the family. Suddenly, a drunk driver swerved into the sidewalk, and while you were able to get out of harm’s way, your dog did not and ended up being killed on impact.
You could definitely prove negligence on the driver’s part given they were driving under the influence, but since your dog would be considered to have no market value, you wouldn’t be able to recover any damages in that regard.
Now, let’s assume you had to seek psychiatric help due to your emotional distress following the loss of your pet. In this case, you could have a viable claim. If you didn’t need and/or seek this help though, you’d have to pursue punitive damages against the driver, which are rarely awarded.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Dina Taylor said she and her son have been sleeping on the porch to avoid their bug-infested downtown apartment.
“We’re trying to prepare for homelessness,” she said. “Since Chica died, we had to do a cremation, and that costs money. .. .When I gave that money to cremate her, I gave the rent money, and it put me behind.”
Still, she says, “we hustle hard.”
“I don’t have a lot of energy,” Taylor said, “but I’m trying.”
