Pack of 10 frenzied poodles swarms Trinidad beachgoers

TRINIDAD – A 13-year-old corgi and her owner were viciously attacked Tuesday, Oct. 29 by a pack of poodles at Trinidad State Beach.

Kathrin Burleson was walking her dog Emma and was with a friend at the beach when a pack of 10 standard poodles jumped out of a car about 50 feet away and ran towards them.

Burleson said she reached down to pick up Emma, who was so scared that she wiggled out of her harness. Within seconds, the pack was on top of them.

“Then they jumped us,” Burleson said. “We were at the bottom of a pack of 10 snarling, biting dogs.”

“I thought Emma and I were going to be killed,” she said.

Burleson tried to cover Emma with her body to protect her. At some point, the owner of the poodles, identified as Frank Mallatt, joined the fray.

Burleson felt her finger being bitten, looked over and saw Mallatt had her finger clenched in his mouth.

“It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life when I looked up and saw that it was a person who was biting me. I screamed to stop and he did,” Burleson said. Burleson said that Mallatt later told her that he thought he was biting one of his dogs.

As the attack continued, an unidentified woman walked over, reached into the snarling pack and pulled out Emma. “She became an angel at that moment,” Burleson said.

“I wish I could locate the person who lifted Emma up from that pack of bloodthirsty, crazed dogs,” Burleson said. “It was a miracle. As she lifted Emma up, the dogs were jumping and tearing at her flesh and fur.”

Emma received severe wounds and was rushed to Sunny Brae Animal Clinic in Arcata, where Dr. Tami Reynolds performed emergency surgery.

The attack was first reported by Trinidad resident Ted Pease on the Nextdoor social media site.

“The lacerations and puncture wounds from the poodles’ attack are extensive and deep. Emma is still fighting for her life, and not out of the woods yet. We have photos of her injuries, but they are too awful to include here,” Pease wrote.

“Emma is healing, slowly, as her wounds are very severe,” Burleson said. She was scheduled to return to the vet early this week for additional treatment.

Emma is a well-known dog, having worked as a service animal at Mad River Community Hospital prior to the pandemic.

This isn’t the first time Mallatts’ dogs have attacked other dogs. Several people on Nextdoor commented about incidents with the poodles.

“This is a warning to those who see a car crammed with fuzzy poodle faces,” Pease wrote. “They are cute, but can be very aggressive (and how humane is it to load eight or more dogs into such a small vehicle?). As Emma’s attack demonstrated, these dogs can be dangerous to other dogs, humans or, God forbid, children.”

An email was sent to Mallatt Monday morning, but the Union did not receive a response before going to press.

Mallatt lives in Klamath in Del Norte County and has a website, critters4service.com. Under “About us,” the website states “Located in northern California and trained by Frank Mallatt, our task-trained service dogs are placed with children at little to no cost through the help of donations and volunteers.”

The website, which includes a video of a pack of poodles, states “Service dogs can help children and adults better connect with the world. Our dogs help teach self responsibility, help them gain independence, and act as a source of calm and a social bridge to their peers.”

Burleson said she would appreciate receiving information about Mallatt’s dogs and previous attacks. Email jack@madriverunion.com and the information will be forwarded to her.