"Pack of Dogs" Attack Mounted Park Police Officer In SE Park

WASHINGTON DC (WUSA) -- A mounted U.S. Park Police officer and a 1200-lb horse named Chance were attacked by a pack of at least 20 free-running dogs at Ft. Dupont Park in SE Washington Tuesday, according to a police spokesperson.

Sgt. David Schlosser said the officer was exercising Chance in a fenced paddock at the police stables in the park when the dogs came inside the fence and began "menacing" the horse and rider.

The officer fired his pistol into the ground to scatter the dogs and then retreated to the stables to secure his horse.

The officer then followed a woman who appeared to be with the dogs down an isolated path in the 360-acre park, where she was arrested. The woman, whose identity was not released by police, was charged for allowing the dogs to run unleashed and also on fugitive warrants from Washington, DC and Maryland.

Twenty dogs were rounded up by U.S. Park Police officers and taken into custody by DC animal control. A number of breeds were involved, including "Bull Terrier-type" dogs, according to Schlosser.

"In the end no people were hurt, no dogs were hurt, and no horses were hurt, and we have one woman under arrest," Schlosser said.

Schlosser had no information on why the woman may have brought the dogs into the park unleashed.