"These animals need to be put down. For the best interest of the public. Absolutely. These are highly vicious animals. They did it once, they'll do it again," said the man, who does not want to be identified.
The man said he was minding his business that fateful October day as he jogged down his Lower Valley street.
"I felt something, I looked behind me, and there was four pit bulls," he said.
According to the jogger, the four dogs wasted no time.
"I saw three of them first. Then the other one, which was the lead dog, he came out of nowhere. He did most of the damage, but all the dogs attacked me," he said.
He was bit multiple times on various parts of his body. The scars from the deep wounds are still very visible nearly a month later. The city of El Paso took quick action -- the dogs were quarantined that day and were set to be put down -- until an injunction was filed to give the dogs their day in court, a chance to prove whether or not they were to be deemed "dangerous." But according to the dogs' owners, that hearing never happened, and the dogs were handed back to them.
"I talked to the city last week, and they implied that the animals were gonna stay in their custody. So I kind of feel misled about that," he said.
The jogger said the city told him the quarantine period was over -- and the dogs couldn't be held any longer.
It's a move the victim of the attack said is a huge mistake.
"I'm not a small guy, I can fight. So that's why I was able to survive. But I knew I was fighting for my life because these dogs wanted to kill me."," he said.
He now walks with a golf club through his neighborhood, his piece of mind, gone -- and some of his faith in the city, lost.
"Their dogs could have killed somebody. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had somebody else walked by or a child walked by, we would have been talking about a homicide here or something."," he said.
The jogger plans to take legal action against the owners of the dogs to cover his medical expenses.
The city of El Paso told our media partners at the El Paso Times that the dogs were ultimately deemed dangerous. The owners will now need to comply with stricter regulations when it comes to their animals.
KFOX 14 tried to contact the city on mulitiple occasions to find out why exactly the dogs were let go and were never received an answer.
(KFOX - Nov 11, 2012)
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