Dog Who Bit Off Man's Penis Might Have Been Provoked
Report: Man Walked Neighborhood Wearing Only Boxers
POSTED: 9:07 am MDT September 10, 2004
UPDATED: 9:42 am MDT September 10, 2004
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A police report concerning the dog that apparently bit off a man's genitals says that the man may have been using force against the animal.
Rudolfo Ramirez, 25, might have been trying to forcibly open the pit bull's mouth.
The report also said Ramirez was wandering the neighborhood in only in boxer shorts.
Eyewitness Tomas Chacon describes what he did when he saw the incident.
"I'm yelling, I'm freaked out, running on pure adrenaline," Chacon said. "I was saying, 'This guy's dead, the dog's eating him, you got to call the police!'"
Chacon says he was working on a surveying crew in the neighborhood and saw what he thought was a dead body with a dog chewing on it. His buddy tried to chase the dog away.
"As soon as he hit the dog, the dog yelped and the guy got up," Chacon remembers. "He was still alive but his inner thighs, genitalia, and lower stomach was all ripped away."
Chacon said Ramirez didn't say a word and ran away as police approached, but he was caught at a nearby park.
"That's something you wish your kids never see," Chacon said. "It's like going to a war. People see (devastations of) war, and when they come back, they're not quite right."
The dog at the focus of the story remains at an animal shelter, as the search for its owner continues.
A university hospital spokesman says the Ramirez family put a Privacy Act block on any information about his condition or treatment.
