Luke Cook was just meters from his front door this week when he and his two Chihuahuas were violently attacked by a stray pit bull.
AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin man is looking for answers after he and two small dogs were injured in a brutal attack by a pit bull.
The attack occurred Tuesday morning at Colorado Crossing near the airport in southeast Austin.
Luke Cook was seconds into his morning walk with his two Chihuahuas and had barely made it down the driveway to the street when he noticed what was clearly a stray dog on the street. Cook waited for the dog to leave, then picked it up and tried to take it into the house.
“As I started walking down the driveway, he followed us, and as soon as he grabbed both of my hands, I found myself in the middle of the front yard,” Cook said.
The pit bull attacked Cook and the dogs and tried to rip them out of his hands.
“The dog went straight at my dog, but it didn’t want me. If it had wanted me, it would have bitten me,” Cooks said. “At one point, Neumann’s entire head was in the dog’s mouth.”
Cooks said he got up and tried to shoo the dogs away, but during the fight he collapsed on the street again.
“All I think about is this has to stop,” Cook said. “It’s going to kill my dog. I have to stop it.”
After screaming for help, Cook said his wife jumped out and was able to free the dogs and get them to safety.
“In this situation, the dog was ready for breakfast,” Cook said. “There was nothing I could do because they were so small they couldn’t defend themselves.”
Mr Cook had severe eczema on his knees and elbows and scratches on his abdomen and back.
Newman, a 5-year-old Chihuahua, suffered severe lacerations to his neck and head and injuries to his thigh, and Matty, an 8-year-old Chihuahua mix, suffered a broken tooth and lacerations to his neck and abdomen. The dogs required emergency surgery at VCA Ben White Animal Hospital, with medical bills totaling nearly $5,000. The dogs are currently recovering from their injuries and are doing well.
Cooke’s 3-year-old son usually joins her for dog walks in the morning, but he didn’t because he was asleep.
“The situation was terrible, but let me just say it’s incredible and miraculous that it wasn’t as bad as expected,” Cook said.
Neighbors say this is not the first time a dog has attacked someone while walking their dog in the area. In fact, Cook said others have witnessed or attacked the same pit bull that attacked him in recent years. They want to do something to address it before another incident occurs.
“This was our worst nightmare,” Cook said. “We talk about it all the time. There’s a problem in this neighborhood and we love our dogs, but they’re so small that if a loose dog comes up to us and tries to do something… , even if it’s play, there’s too little.” They can get hurt, and this week our worst nightmare came true. ”
It is unclear whether the dog lived nearby and came out, or whether it was a stray dog found nearby.
Cook’s family and others are afraid to spend time outside, walk their pets or let their children play outside because of the aggressive dog.
“We’re scared to walk around the neighborhood…the rules in this house are to enter and exit from the garage,” Cook said. “I walk through the garage door in the hallway, close it, open the garage and check for any danger, because you never know when the dog will come back.”
Cook said loose dogs are a problem in the neighborhood, in part because the perimeter fence allows dogs to dig and wiggle under the fence.
“Things don’t seem to be getting any better. In fact, they seem to be getting worse,” Cook said. I would like to see some action taken in the neighborhood to fix this problem, repair fences, and hold people accountable for how they maintain their properties. ”
Colorado Crossing’s HOA management company, PMP Management, called an emergency meeting Thursday night to address the situation.
Cook also wants stricter laws regarding dangerous dogs in the state, because next time it might not be his dog.
“Until we have proper laws in place, until people take action, things like this will continue to happen even if dogs don’t bite humans because something happens to them,” he said. “It’s going to happen here again, and it could be a child next.”
There were 131 serious bite incidents reported in Austin last year, according to city data.
Cook said she filed a police report and an officer directed her to animal protection. KVUE reached out to the Austin Police Department to ask about this incident and similar incidents in the area, but did not receive a response.
