Father speaks out after animal cruelty arrest, says he was defending his daughter

A man ABC-7 reported as arrested for animal cruelty last week said he was defending his daughter from a dog attack. Taylor James Norris, a 22-year-old Ft. Bliss soldier is out on bail after being charged with animal cruelty.

The information ABC-7 used for the story all came from an El Paso Police Department press release.

“My daughter was next to me when I was going to my XBox on my desk, I had her by the hand and I heard the dog growling. That’s when I turned around and told the dog to stop growling at the baby.” Norris told ABC-7.

Taylor James Norris was taking care of his daughter last February when their two year old Husky attacked her, information backed up by a police report.

“The dog lunged out the kennel and attacked the baby. That’s when I went into action, assessed the threat, making sure my daughter was not gonna be harmed or her life was gonna be taken, because at that point I was scared for her life,” Norris said.

Norris admits he did fight their dog, but says it was all because to defend his daughter.

“This one went all the way down to her bone, then it was under her eye, on her eyelid, on her nose, and on her cheek,” said Oriana Norris, the baby’s mother, describing her daughter’s wounds.

Norris said his daughter was in and out of consciousness as he drove her to the hospital where she was operated on and stitched up. It was after this the family decided to surrender the dog.

“Even though the dog had mauled my daughter’s face, I still wanted to give it a second shot at life,” Norris said.

Norris said he took the dog to the humane society, but it was not accepted after biting the intake staff. He was told to take the dog to Animal Services where it would be quarantined for ten days.

An Animal services staff member then reported Norris to the police for being violent with the dog, but he says he was only trying to get control of the dog after it snapped and nearly bit the staff member.

Norris turned himself in after being told about an animal cruelty arrest warrant ABC-7 reported on, and was bailed out by his wife.

Norris was told the dog had been put down four days into a ten day quarantine for being too aggressive with Animal Control staff.

“It was a family pet, we loved and we cared about the dog,” Oriana Norris said.

“I still blame myself for not being fast enough to stop the dog from biting my daughter’s face, because if I was fast enough the dog would still be with us,” said Taylor Norris.

ABC-7 has reached out to police but they had no comment on this case.

We have tried to reach Animal Services to confirm the dog’s behavior during the quarantine period but they have not returned our calls.

Norris has not been assigned a court date for this case.