Pit Bull Attack Sends Man to Hospital With Deep Cuts

Two pit bulls attacked a 60-year-old Hawthorne man who had left his house to get a morning newspaper Saturday, sending him to a hospital with deep wounds on his arms and one leg, authorities said.

Joseph Raymond Collin was in serious condition at Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne and was expected to need extensive surgery to replace tissue lost on his limbs, police said.

“He suffered severe lacerations and punctures, and lots of skin was torn away on both arms and his left leg,” Hawthorne Police Lt. Jan Ogden said. “Some (of the cuts) look to be three or four inches long. He’s going to need skin grafts.”

It was the second attack by pit bull-type dogs locally in two weeks. Marjee Lilly, 70, died Jan. 18 after she was mauled in South-Central Los Angeles by her grandson’s two dogs, both part pit bull terrier and part boxer. Her death was the second known fatal attack by a pit bull-type dog in Los Angeles County. The first was that of a Hawthorne boy in 1983, prompting the city to enact tougher restrictions on dangerous dogs.

One of the dogs that attacked Collin also bit his 87-year-old father last July, Hawthorne animal control officials said. The owner, who lives on the same street as Collin, was cited after that incident. Police declined to release the owner’s name.

Lt. Ogden said Collin left his home in the 11500 block of Grevillea Avenue about 7 a.m. Saturday to buy a newspaper at a nearby store.

“On his way home, the pit bull attacked him,” Ogden said. “During the attack, a second pit bull also got loose and joined the attack.”

An unidentified passer-by reportedly stopped his car and rushed to help Collin fend off the dogs, said Tori Matthews, an animal control officer at the Southern California Humane Society shelter in Hawthorne.

“People do not have any business owning dogs that attack like this,” she said. “It was unprovoked.”

The animals, a male and a female believed to be 1 or 2 years of age, were placed in separate isolation kennels behind double-locked fences at the shelter.