Pit bulls attack two men in Riverside County

Officials in Riverside County on Tuesday were investigating separate attacks by two pit bulls that left two men injured.

The first attack occurred after 7 p.m. Monday in an incorporated area near Hemet when two female dogs attacked the first victim and bit him in the buttocks area in 27000 block of Meridan Street, according to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

A short while after the first incident, the second victim was bitten in the face and received several puncture wounds to the side of his body and his ankle in a “pretty vicious attack” by the same dogs, agency spokesman John Welsh said.

He said the man was forced to punch and kick the animals as they rushed him. “The dogs were not going to stop,” Welsh said in an interview. “They were just going after him.”

The man was attacked after he heard the pit bulls barking at his dog and went outside to shoo them away, Welsh said.

The man was taken by a family member to a hospital, where he was treated for his wounds.

Both dogs were unlicensed and did not have current rabies vaccination certificates, according to agency officials.

A Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputy responded and discovered that the dogs had escaped from their home through a window that had been left open. The dogs were impounded and taken to the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus.

Welsh said the dogs’ owner indicated Tuesday afternoon that she would surrender the animals to be euthanized. The owner, he said, “indicated that she felt terrible.”