Valeria Capetillo thought she heard something strange outside her front door on November 18, 2025, and went to investigate. She noticed a dog and wanted to snap a picture to post online so she could find the owner. As she opened her door, her 3-year-old son, Santiago, came running to see what the fuss was all about. When the curious toddler reached the door, the unthinkable happened right in front of his parents’ eyes. The dog, which looks like a pitbull, reportedly jumped through the door, attacked Santiago, and ripped out his two front teeth. His horrified parents fought off the dog, saving Santiago, but that wasn’t enough for them. The Capetillos want the dog put down.
Santiago’s parents, who live in Houston, Texas, told KOLD the situation unfolded in a flash. “It just happened so fast, and I couldn’t try to stop the dog,” Valeria Capetillo said. “I put my leg so he could bite me instead, but he just went after him.”
Alex Capetillo said he jumped in to save his young son’s life. “My first instinct was, ‘Get the dog off of my son,’” he shared with the outlet. “So, I choked the dog enough to go ahead to where the dog kind of gave a little cry. Let go and finally, whenever the dog let go, I went ahead and just picked him up and threw him outside of the house.”
The couple rushed Santiago to the hospital with multiple injuries. Alex Capetillo posted about the alleged attack on Facebook, including photos from the hospital. From the looks of his injuries, Santiago’s parents saved his life.
“He fractured my sons left orbital bone, lacerations in his inner eye lid, a laceration on his right eyebrow, a laceration on his right cheek, a bite on his neck, and pulled 2 teeth out of my sons mouth,” Alex Capetillo shared on Facebook.
The Capetillos claim the dog belongs to their neighbor, Jermaine Armstrong. He admitted to KOLD that the dog in the photo is his, but he doesn’t believe his dog attacked Santiago.
“I’m a truck driver. I was on the road,” he told the outlet in a phone interview. “I don’t know what really took place. It’s an allegation. You know what I mean?”
Alex Capetillo claims he will continue to fight until authorities put the dog down. He’s now carrying a gun for protection against his neighbor’s pet, he told KOLD.
“I talked to the neighbor and we had agreed that he was going to put the dog down himself but hasn’t done so at all. I have stopped communicating with the neighbor because there’s nothing leading out of it. They have been playing not home every time animal control has came out to pick up the dog so they start the process with quarantine on the animal,” the dad posted on Facebook.
If the dog in the photo jumped into the home and attacked Santiago, there should be no question about what happens next. How anyone could look at Santiago’s injuries and not immediately surrender their dog is beyond us. We love our pets, but safety is most important, particularly when it comes to kids.
