Up to five pit bulls attacked Louis Hart, 63, just a block from his South Dallas home Sunday morning.
“I ain’t never fought nothing like I fought them,” Hart told News 8 from his hospital bed.
The dogs broke his arm and chewed up his legs and arms. His hands and feet are completely bandaged; there’s a deep cut just above his right eye.
“They were shaking me like they had something good to eat,” he said. “I had one hand in this dog’s mouth and one hand in another dog’s mouth, while another was chewing on my ankles.”
Hart was walking to a store on the 2300 block of Greer St. around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, when he says the dogs lunged out of nowhere.
"[They were] trying to get my throat,” Hart said. “One of them went off and took my shoe.”
Several members of a nearby church eventually had to use a stick to beat the dogs off Hart. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital where he’s expected to remain for several more days.
“I thank God, because I don’t feel like I was supposed to be here,” he said. “I thought I was going to die.”
His wife, Sharon Tipton, later found the chewed-up shoe in a nearby field. The dogs’ teeth had sliced through the thick leather.
“That’s my husband’s shoe,” she said in disbelief, while sticking her fingers through the holes. “It’s ripped to pieces.”
A Dallas Animal Services spokesperson said they found four of the dogs Monday afternoon. The animals are in quarantine while its officers investigate.
Jimmie Martin, the director of code compliance, said the dogs’ owners have been identified, but have not yet been charged.
The City of Dallas responded to 1,901 animal bite calls this fiscal year (from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012). That number is slightly up from the previous year, which saw 1,786 animal bites.
(KHOU - Nov 27, 2012)
