It was a Friday afternoon, and 33-year-old Diane Whipple went grocery shopping. When she returned to her apartment, she was attacked, mauled and killed by at least one Canary Island fighting dog.

It sounds like something that would happen in a Stephen King novel, but it happened Jan. 26 in San Francisco. These dogs, named Bane and Hera make Cujo look like Scooby Doo.

And if this scenario isn’t terrible enough, there’s a lot more to this story that makes it even more tragic and sickening.

These dogs were trained their entire lives to fight. They were owned by Paul Schneider and Dale Bretches, members of the white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood. Bane and Hera were bred to guard meth labs and other criminal operations of the Mexican mafia.

Schneider and Bretches are serving life sentences at Pelican Bay State Prison, and the dogs were being cared for by Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, both lawyers.

Noel and Knoller had adopted Schneider three days before the attack, and were keeping the huge dogs in their tiny apartment next door to Whipple’s apartment.

Mean dogs don’t change, and Bane and Hera were no exception. They had been trained to be fiercely protective. When they saw the movement created by Whipple, they did what was instinctive to them – they attacked.

Yet Noel and Knoller are trying to blame Whipple for the attack. In a 19-page letter sent to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, they claimed Whipple kept coming in and out of her apartment, and may have been wearing perfume or a special brand of cosmetics. The letter even suggested Whipple had been using steroids, and these smells could have provoked the attack.

Knoller claims she tried to keep the dogs away from Whipple, but was unable to control them because of the enormous size of the dogs and Whipple just stood there instead of trying to get out of the way.

Here’s something that wasn’t in the letter. Bane, the dog that led the attack, weighed 120 pounds. Hera weighed about 113 pounds, and how much he participated in the attack is unknown.

Diane Whipple weighed 110 pounds. She coached lacrosse at a university. She decided to leave her apartment to run errands, and it was a decision that ended her life.

She did not deserve to die, and allegations of illegal drug use by Noel and Knoller show how cowardly they are and how willing they are to say anything to avoid punishment.

And punishment is very likely. Both could be charged with manslaughter, yet Noel doesn’t think he should be criminally charged for Whipple’s murder.

It is appalling that Noel and Knoller are trying to escape punishment for this crime. They knew what type of dogs they were housing and of the threat to others these dogs posed.

These dogs never should have been brought to the United States, and they shouldn’t have been allowed to stay in Mexico either. Both should have been killed immediately after their drug-loving, close-minded owners got carted off to the pen.

Bane was euthanized after the attack, and Hera’s fate will be determined at a hearing Feb. 13. Odds aren’t looking good for Hera either – pieces of clothing were found in her feces, strong evidence that she was involved in the attack on Whipple.

Noel and Knoller were the only witnesses to the attack, and prosecutors could have a difficult time proving what happened that afternoon.

But the facts are indisputable. Whipple was killed by at least one vicious animal, and Noel and Knoller must be held accountable.

These dogs will have been removed from society and won’t be able to hurt anyone else. But it’s too late for Whipple. Noel and Knoller should get the biggest sentence the law allows.