At least 7 dogs have been found, or brought to local shelters, with what appears to be chemical burns on their backs. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of a suspect in connection with apparent chemical attacks involving domestic dogs in the Antelope Valley and surrounding communities. (Photo courtesy of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) 
 
 Los Angeles County officials hope a $25,000 reward will help solve the mystery of who is chemically burning dogs in the Antelope Valley. 
 
 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Tuesday Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s request to offer a $25,000 reward for information about the dogs that leads to the perpetrator. 
 
 A golden retriever and at least six pit bulls were found in the past year in Lancaster, Palmdale and Rosamond in Kern County with chemical burns. A golden retriever, named Fergus, suffered from third-degree burns on its neck and back was brought to the Lancaster animal shelter Aug. 11 and subsequently turned over to the Animal Medical Center of Southern California in West Los Angeles. 
 
 The Sheriff’s Department and the county Department of Animal Care and Control are investigating a number of incidents of suspected animal cruelty. Investigators are trying to determine if the injuries are accidental or are intentional crimes. 
 
 The reward offer is contingent on providing information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible. 
 
 “We hope that the reward will encourage someone that may have heard something to step forward with information that may lead us to the person who committed these really depraved acts of cruelty,” Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell said. 
 
 Sheriff’s officials encouraged members of the public to report similar acts of animal cruelty. 
 
 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has offered a $2,500 reward in this case. A GoFundMe page has also raised $25,000 as of Tuesday. 
 
 Anyone with information is asked to call investigator Rachel Montez-Kemp at L.A. County Animal Care and Control at 661-974-8096 or Deputy Daniel Gore at the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station at 661-940-3851 or 661-948-8466. 
 
 To provide information anonymously, call “Crime Stoppers” at 800-222-TIPS (8477), or text the letters TIPLA plus the tip to CRIMES (274637) or at http://lacrimestoppers.org. ||||| The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich ’s motion for the reward in connection with at least seven attacks since July on dogs in both L.A. and Kern counties. Dogs have been found with long burns on their back. Authorities believe they may be caused by a caustic chemical. Two of the dogs were so severely injured that they were euthanized. ||||| People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals offered a $2,500 reward Thursday for information leading to the person or people who severely burned a golden retriever, possibly with battery acid, in the Lancaster area. 
 
 “It takes a dangerous lack of empathy to pour acid on a dog and leave him for dead on the side of the road,” PETA Senior Director Colleen O’Brien said. “PETA is urging anyone with information about this case to come forward now before anyone else is hurt.” 
 
 The dog, who has been named “Fergus,” was brought to a Lancaster animal shelter Aug. 11 and subsequently turned over to the Animal Medical Center of Southern California in West Los Angeles for treatment, with the help of the Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue Group. 
 
 Fergus was apparently taken to the shelter by a good Samaritan who found the wounded animal suffering from severe burns on its head and back. 
 
 Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials have begun an investigation in hopes of finding the person or people responsible. Three other dogs have been found with similar injuries in recent weeks, at least two of them also in the Antelope Valley, although investigators have not officially linked the cases. Two of the other dogs have died. 
 
 Doctors at the Animal Medical Center said Fergus is making an almost miraculous recovery. 
 
 NBC4 reported Wednesday that one of its viewers had offered a $2,000 reward for information leading to the suspect or suspects. 
 
 Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he will ask his board colleagues on Sept. 1 to approve a $10,000 reward. 
 
 “With this reward, we hope to encourage the public to come forth with any information that will help us identify, apprehend and prosecute whomever is responsible for these depraved acts of cruelty,” he said. 
 
 A Gofundme page was set up by the Golden Retriever Rescue Group in hopes of raising $10,000 to cover the dog’s medical costs. As of midday Thursday, more than $19,000 had already been raised. Rescue Group officials said excess funds will be used to assist other dogs in the group’s care. ||||| A Southern California man has been charged with murder in the death of a 63-year-old woman who was mauled to death by a pack of pit bulls earlier this month. 
 
 Alex Donald Jackson, 29, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with one count of murder in the fatal mauling of 63-year-old Pamela Devitt, who was out for a jog in the Mojave desert on May 9 when she was attacked. Passing motorists witnessed the mauling and called 911. 
 
 "When the deputy showed up, Dewitt was still alive. Paramedics thought she would live," Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Division told ABCNews.com. But she died on the way to the hospital, Corina said. 
 
 An autopsy revealed that Devitt had died of blood loss attributed to sharp-force trauma. She sustained approximately 150 to 200 puncture wounds, Corina said. 
 
 When an officer arrived at the scene, one of the dogs was still mauling Devitt, according to Corina. The deputy approached, and the dog ran off but soon turned around and came at the officer. He fired a shot, and the dog ran off again, only to turn around a moment later and come at the officer a second time. The officer fired a second shot, and the dog again took off, Corina said. 
 
 Acting on information, sheriff' and animal-control officials obtained a warrant and searched Jackson's home, located about a block from the site of the attack. Eight dogs, six pit bulls and two mixed-breeds, were taken from the home. 
 
 Jackson will be arraigned Friday at Los Angeles Superior Court, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. He's being held on $1 million bail. 
 
 Deputy District Attorney Samantha MacDonald said that since January authorities had received at least three other reports of Jackson's pit bulls attacking people. 
 
 Corina said that the fence around the property was only 3- to 4-feet feet high, and the dogs could easily hop over it. He said that police found other people who had similar stories, and area residents told ABC's Los Angeles station KABC-TV they feared the dogs. 
 
 "It's really scary," Diane Huffman told KABC-TV. "I don't know what to think. I really think I'm going to be getting a gun to protect myself. 
 
 "They'd be walking past the house, and the dogs would attack them or their livestock, he said. "In one instance, they were attacking a guy on a horse. [Jackson} encouraged it. When he tried to stop the dogs, [Jackson] threw rocks at him, and said to leave his dogs alone." 
 
 Jackson, who allegedly ran a marijuana operation at his home, according to the Los Angeles County DA, was also charged with cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale, possession for sale of a controlled substance, and assault with a deadly weapon. 
 
 Corina said that the dogs, which appear to be of varying ages, were all fully grown. He said that they were currently with the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Control, and would likely be euthanized. ||||| Pamela Devitt was taking a morning walk through her neighborhood earlier this month when a pack of pit bulls mauled her. 
 
 The retired office manager suffered 150 to 200 puncture wounds in the fatal attack. When the first sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene in the Antelope Valley town of Littlerock, he saw Devitt on the ground with one of the dogs still mauling her. 
 
 On Thursday, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged the dogs' owner with murder. Prosecutors could not recall ever filing a similar murder case, but said the incident warranted such serious charges because the owner's dogs had attacked others before mauling Devitt. 
 
 DISCUSSION: Should dog owner face murder charge? 
 
 District attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said authorities had received at least three reports of attacks by dogs belonging to Alex Donald Jackson, 29, since January. 
 
 "We believe there was evidence that he was aware the dogs were vicious and they have attacked before and he knew of the danger they posed," Robison said. 
 
 Jackson, who authorities say was growing marijuana in his home, was arrested Thursday and is being held on $1,050,000 bail. He is expected to be arraigned Friday. 
 
 Devitt, 63, died en route to a hospital, and the attack sparked outrage in the neighborhood and beyond. Sheriff's officials said detectives found Devitt's blood on the muzzle and coats of four of Jackson's eight dogs. 
 
 "There's no way I can get the brutality of this out of my head," Devitt's husband, Ben Devitt, told The Times. "The fact that there's animals out there roaming around with that kind of killer instinct, it's just kind of something I can't shake." 
 
 Animal control officials took custody of Jackson's dogs. 
 
 Murder cases involving dog attacks remain extremely rare, despite an increasing willingness by prosecutors throughout the country to file other types of charges, such as manslaughter and child endangerment, said Donald Cleary, a spokesman for the National Canine Research Council. The organization, which tracks dog attack cases, documented 34 dog-related fatalities last year. Six resulted in prosecutions; none involved murder charges. 
 
 Cleary said fatal dog attacks tend to occur in outlying locations much like Littlerock, a desert community of about 1,400 where chain-link fences surround scattered homes and signs caution trespassers and warn that dogs are present. 
 
 "It happens on the fringes of society — where people live to avoid others," he said. 
 
 Littlerock residents complained Thursday about stray dogs roaming the neighborhood. Kimberly Eslick, 29, said her cat was killed by a stray dog in the area. 
 
 "It doesn't surprise me at all," she said of Devitt's death, adding that she does not allow her kindergarten-age daughter out front alone anymore. 
 
 Another resident, Jane Hammer, 60, said she carries a pistol with a hot-pink handle whenever she leaves the house as protection against bands of wild dogs she has seen in the area. 
 
 The state's highest-profile dog-mauling murder case was tried in Los Angeles about a decade ago when a San Francisco judge moved a Bay Area case south in reaction to local outrage at the victim's death. In that case, a pair of Presa Canarios fatally mauled a woman in the hallway of her Pacific Heights apartment complex, leaving her with 77 bite marks. 
 
 A Los Angeles jury convicted the dog's owner, Marjorie Knoller, of second-degree murder and her husband of involuntary manslaughter. A judge reduced Knoller's conviction to involuntary manslaughter, but the jury's verdict was reinstated following an appeal. 
 
 To prove murder in a dog-mauling case, prosecutors must show that a dog owner knew the animal could endanger someone's life and acted in a way that showed a conscious disregard for that danger. The key is to show jurors that the animal's owner was previously warned that the animal was capable of killing, said Jim Hammer, who successfully prosecuted Knoller. 
 
 "What this case will turn on is the prior incidents," said Hammer, who is now in private practice and is not related to Jane Hammer. "These are preventable deaths. I applaud any prosecutor who pursues such a case."
– Since July, at least seven dogs in and around Los Angeles County have been burned, likely with battery acid or another chemical—and now the county is offering a $25,000 reward for help finding the person or people behind the attacks. Two of the dogs (some of which have also been attacked in Kern County) were euthanized as a result of the attacks, the Los Angeles Times reports. Most of the injured animals have been pit bulls, but a golden retriever was also burned in the attacks, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Authorities also released a photo of an injured cocker spaniel. "We hope that the reward will encourage someone that may have heard something to step forward with information that may lead us to the person who committed these really depraved acts of cruelty," says a spokesperson for LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich. PETA is also offering a $2,500 reward, the Daily News reports. Money is being raised for at least two of the dogs online; their GoFundMe pages are here and here. (In happier news, these 100 dogs were saved from becoming dinner.)