PUYALLUP, WA - The woman stood nearby watching as the pit bull tore into UPS driver Kevin Backlund's leg. Backlund moments earlier had entered this property along 116th Street East in an unincorporated area south of Puyallup to deliver a package. After he entered the property, he was set upon by four pit bulls who tore at Backlund's arms and legs, inflicting injuries that a witness would later say looked like something out of a war.

Backlund, 59, a former Nevada state police officer trained in martial arts, tried to fend off the dogs with his belt. After seeking refuge on top of a trailer, he called 911 telling the dispatcher one of the dogs had severed a vein and he was bleeding profusely. That dispatcher sent the call to Pierce County deputies and Orting Valley Fire and Rescue. Orting Battalion Chief Steve Goodwin was the first to arrive on the scene. What Goodwin saw was as bizarre as it was violent: that woman just watching a pit bull tear Backlund apart.

"I asked her if they were her dogs and she said, 'yes.'" Goodwin recalled in a report he wrote about the incident. "I told her to get the dogs under control and she said, 'The driver was trespassing and kicked one of my dogs.'" "They are going to kill him," the woman said to Goodwin.

Who Owns The Dogs? In the wake of the Sept. 13 mauling, there are still many unanswered questions about what happened that day. Backlund intends to sue the dog owners, but the property where the attack happened appears to be inhabited by a shifting group of people, and none have really stepped up to claim ownership of the dogs. The property itself, according to Pierce County records, is owned by a man named Jason Owens. But in multiple visits to the property, police have only been in touch with a man named Darryl Burgess, a registered sex offender who claims to live at the property. In police reports of visits after the incident, officers have tried calling Owens, but it seems they never reached him.

County property records indicate there are no buildings on the property, although there are sheds, RVs, and other vehicle parts stored there. There are also several businesses that list the property as an address. One of those companies, R C O Ent Inc., is, ironically, some type of freight shipping business.

Immediately after the attack, the four pit bulls, including the "pack leader" Loranitis, were taken to the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County for quarantine.

Backlund sought refuge on top of this trailer inside the property. This photo was taken Sept. 13 shortly after the attack. On Sept. 22, Pierce County animal control officer Patrick Cassin declared the dogs dangerous and got a warrant to keep the dogs locked up at the kennel. Cassin made that determination based on a number of factors, one was that neither Burgess nor Owens took any steps to protect strangers from the dogs. The front gate was secured with what officers described as a flimsy black ribbon, police said.

After the mauling of Backlund, police asked Burgess whether anyone had posted a sign about the dangerous dogs. Burgess said there was a yellow sign, but that it was missing. On that Sept. 22 return visit, Cassin saw that someone had found that sign and placed it near the bottom of the fence.