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| Alfredo Ramos lies in bed with his leg and arms bandaged after a vicious attack by two dogs Tuesday in Wilmington. |
Two angry dogs clamped down on his legs with their teeth, trying to pull him down.
"They bit up my shoe," the Wilmington man said. "It was no use. They were just attacking me."
Ramos, 35, and two other victims of Tuesday afternoon's mauling described their horrifying ordeal in detail Wednesday, explaining how they tried to fend off two 70-pound dogs seemingly intent on killing them.
Each showed off bite wounds on their arms, legs and torsos. Bandages covered at least 60 stitches on Ramos' right leg and wounds to his arm, including a chunk of flesh ripped away from his left forearm.
"It's really chewed up," he said.
Ramos knew the dogs were trouble. They had chased him before. When he saw them Monday in their yard, they looked aggressive.
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| Rita Torres recounts a vicious attack by two dogs she survived Tuesday in Wilmington |
"By the time we passed again with my son and the kid we baby-sit, I knew they were sort of not looking at us right," he said.
Fearing the dogs might attack, Ramos told the children to run ahead. The children were gone when the canines pounced.
The dogs - a male boxer and American bulldog mix, and a male pit bull terrier and Akita mix - rushed toward Torres, biting her buttocks and legs, as she walked with Ramos through an alley.
Showing teeth marks on her legs, Torres said in Spanish that she was terrified, especially when the dogs got close to her face.
Ramos rushed toward the dogs to protect her, taking out his keys and stabbing one dog on the top of the head.
"They got more angry and went after me," he said. "They really came harder and harder. They ripped a chunk of my arm and my calf and took a few bites of my foot."
Ramos managed to get away, running toward a fence. He leaped onto it and tried to climb it, but the dogs grabbed him.
"Once he bit my pants, then he got hold of my shoe and then he got hold of my legs," Ramos said.
Torres said she screamed for help, picking up a discarded carton and then a bag of clothes, and hurling them at the dogs.
"(Ramos) was hanging, covered in blood," she said.
As she yelled, a neighbor pulled his car into the alley. Ramos yelled, too.
"If nobody would have come to the rescue, the dogs wouldn't have stopped," Ramos said. "I was screaming so far, `Somebody help me, help me!' It could have been a lot worse."
Seeing the car, the dogs ran to a nearby park. Ramos jumped onto the car's roof.
Just blocks away, Rafael Marquez Arce, 65, sat on a bench in the East Wilmington Greenbelt, a narrow park with swings, grass and plenty of children who had just been dismissed from Wilmington Park school.
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| In these three photos, Rafael Marquez Arce shows his numerous wounds on his chest, arms and legs. |
Arce said he saw the dogs coming toward him. He jumped up, but they lunged at him, biting his arm, chest and legs.
Children and parents in the park scrambled for safety.
He tried to fight them off, but they got angrier. Another man, seeing what was happening, ran over with a blanket and flicked it at the dogs, trying to lure them away from Arce.
The dogs took the bait, grabbing onto the blanket with their jaws and trying to pull it from him. The man dragged the dogs toward a slide and climbed up it. The dogs gave up, released the blanket and trotted away.
Police, firefighters and animal control officers arrived a short time later. Animal control officers found the dogs at a house in the 1500 block of East Denni Street. They had run home.
The owner, hearing how much it would cost to quarantine them while they were under investigation, relinquished his rights to the animals and surrendered them to the officers.
The dogs are in quarantine at the San Pedro animal shelter. Animal control Capt. Daniel Pantoja said the mauling is under investigation and the dogs will either be destroyed or adopted by a rescue group if that is deemed appropriate.
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| Chuco, an intact male Boxer and American Bulldog mix |
The victims are taking antibiotics in case the dogs are determined to have rabies. Pantoja said the dogs, Cisco and Chuco, were unlicensed and unaltered.
The owner was cited for letting dangerous dogs run free.
Ramos and his mother-in-law said they were grateful the dogs did not attack any children.
The Dennis Street house where the dogs live is owned by Gonzalo Anguiano and Leonor Anguiano. A man who lives in the residence, Rick Hernandez, returned a message left by the Daily Breeze.
He said he cared for the dogs for the last year for the owners, but hung up twice when asked questions about why the dogs were allowed to run free.
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| Cisco, an intact male pit bull terrier and Akita mix |
The man, neighbors said, has walked the dogs without leashes, and has previously allowed them to roam free.
"I'm angry because they have given us problems before," Ramos said. "I've been chased by that dog before. I had warned my mother-in-law about those two dogs."
(Daily Breeze - April 29, 2011)
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