OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An Oklahoma City man is recovering after being attacked by two big dogs.
He said he tried to call 911 multiple times to get an OKC Animal Control officer to respond. They did – 22 hours later.
“I yelled at it, tried to get it to go away, and when I did, he lunged at me, bit me on my leg and knocked me down,” said Jimmy Durant.
Durant said he was attacked by two large dark-colored dogs, one dragging a leash, during his Monday run around the Lansbrook neighborhood near Northwest Expressway and MacArthur.
The 61-year-old tried climbing on top of a mailbox to get away from the dogs, but he fell and busted his head. Meanwhile, the dogs bit him through his sweatpants.
“I heard death-curdling screams. This gentleman yelling for help,” said Stephan Gray.
Gray threw his gardening sheers at the dogs, then went searching for them with his pistol in hand.
“I was going to take them down,” said Gray.
Bryan Olivares says his father, Pablo, also ran to help while armed with a shovel.
“He just tried to scare them away,” said Olivares. “Sometimes you got to be willing to risk it.”
Pablo said he never struck the dog.
“I get really emotional thinking that if it hadn’t been for those two, I may not have been a survivor,” said Durant.
Durant and the neighbors all called 911. Durant declined help from an ambulance, but said he was still injured.
Urgent care workers who tended to his injuries also called to report it.
“[Urgent care workers were] told by the way, ‘Yes, we’re familiar with the case. He’s called 911 and we’ll have somebody out to talk to him,’” said Durant.
Animal Control officers finally arrived to Durant’s home around 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
“That’s not normal,” said Jonathan Gary with OKC Animal Control. “He definitely should’ve been a priority.”
Gary said he apologizes and is now pouring over call logs to find the disconnect.
“For whatever reason, the call didn’t get to our officer, or at least the significance of the call to the officer. So, the officer didn’t respond. Typically, in these cases, you’d see the police also respond and for whatever reason they also didn’t,” said Gary.
“My concern is, had this been an 11- or- 12-year-old child,” said Durant. “Would it have taken them 20 hours to investigate an attack on a kid?”
“People with pit bulls need to have more control over them because they come through here, they’re going to be burying it,” said Gray.
The next step is locating the dogs. Animal Control said their officers will be patrolling the area for the next ten days to try to find them.