ELYRIA — Ryan Davis said he’d do anything to protect his 6-year-old son Cameron and he’ll have the scars to prove it.
Ryan Davis describes being attacked by his roommate’s dog. (CT photo by Evan Goodenow.)
Davis was mauled by a mixed pit bull around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of Eighth Street, defending Cameron after Tippy, an 11-month-old dog, jumped on and scratched Cameron as he ran from it.
“I saw him jump up on my son. That’s when the daddy instincts jumped in,” Davis said Wednesday from a hospital bed at EMH Medical Center in Elyria. “I just went out there and started going crazy because I didn’t want anything to happen to my son.”
Tippy is one of six dogs owned by Wanda Alexander, Davis’ roommate, in the 300 block of Eighth Street. The attack was precipitated by Tippy and his sister, Sugar, chasing a cat out of Alexander and Davis’ home.
Tippy then jumped on Cameron, prompting Davis to grab a metal rod and come to his son’s defense. Davis said he swung the rod at Tippy like a baseball bat.
“I hit him every single time square on his head and he would not back away,” Davis said. “He just kept coming and coming and coming.”
Davis said the attack lasted two or three minutes before Josie Alexander, Alexander’s 16-year-old daughter, was able to subdue Tippy. After the attack, a screaming Davis lay in the street naked and bleeding, his clothes shredded by Tippy.
“Luckily he listened to Josie and let go,” said Davis. “I got lucky.”
Davis, 40, received five puncture wounds on his right arm, an approximately 4-inch long, 2-inch deep bite on his upper left thigh as well as bites on his back.
Between 1982 and 2006, pit bull terriers were the deadliest of all dog breeds in Canada and the U.S., killing 104 people, according to an analysis of news reports by Merritt Clifton, a Clinton, Wash., based animal rights journalist. Rottweilers were second, killing 58 and maiming 203.
While Clifton concluded pit bulls are dangerous and need to be strictly regulated, Davis said he doesn’t believe the dogs are inherently dangerous. Davis, who said he will have to undergo therapy on his arm, said Tippy’s behavior may have been due to him being kept in the basement because Alexander didn’t have enough room in the home for all her dogs.
“Pit bulls are not vicious,” he said. “It’s only how you bring them up.”
Tippy, who was not vaccinated for rabies, has been placed on a 10-day quarantine and will be killed. Wanda Alexander, 38, was charged with keeping a vicious dog at large and warned to get insurance for her other two pit bulls.
Alexander visited Davis, who she said she considers like a second brother, on Wednesday. She said she was devastated by what happened to him and about Tippy’s impending death. Alexander, who said she’s a single mother working full-time, said she isn’t a pit bull breeder and the birth of her three younger pit bulls was unplanned. She said she has been trying to sell or give away the three dogs.
A tearful Alexander said she understood why Davis believed Cameron was in danger, but believes Tippy isn’t vicious.
“I just want everybody to know that I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she said. “He’s never hurt anybody before.”
Contact Evan Goodenow at 329-7129 or egoodenow@chroniclet.com.
