Victim of Dog Attack Is Slowly Recovering

As he struggled with his one free arm to fend off the relentless attack of two pit bull terriers, Acension Cervantez didn’t think he would survive.

But as he lay face down with his strength ebbing, the dogs inexplicably walked away, leaving the nurseryman alone, his body bloodied, his scalp torn open, his left ear ripped off.

“I didn’t think I’d come out of it alive,” the 40-year-old immigrant said Thursday, from his Sylmar home, where the father of three is recuperating. “On the ground I said, ‘God, I’m in your hands.’ I didn’t hear them again.”

The muscular-looking laborer--with calloused hands and sun-weathered face--recalled his harrowing predawn experience on Feb. 16, when two pit bull terriers, a male and a female, mauled him just after he arrived for work at the Valley Crest Tree Co. in Sylmar.

Cervantez said he was unloading supplies from his truck when the dogs pounced on him--the female dog latching onto his right hand and the stronger male biting and snapping at his head, stomach and legs.

Cervantez said at one point he managed to grab the male dog’s lower jaw, making it difficult for the animal to attack him.

“I stuck some of my fingers down his throat . . . that stopped the attack a little,” Cervantez said. “I don’t know how I survived, but God is great.”

A trucker who often parks his 18-wheeler near the nursery responded to Cervantez’s screams and summoned authorities to the isolated area. Cervantez was taken to County-USC Medical Center where he underwent hours of surgery. He was released Monday.

He said doctors have told him he will need extensive reconstructive surgery to repair damage to his scalp and ear area.

On Thursday he was well enough to walk for a short period and watch a Spanish-dubbed “Scarface” in the modest two-bedroom Sylmar apartment. Well enough to smile now and then.

The dogs, later captured by animal services workers, were not spayed or neutered, a fact that greatly increased their aggression, said Capt. Richard Felosky of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.

The pit bull terriers that mauled Cervantez are being held at the West Valley Animal Care and Control Center in Chatsworth.

Their owners could face criminal negligence charges, an animal services official said. The department will hold a hearing to decide whether to destroy the dogs.

Last week’s attack may be added fuel for those who favor an ordinance to require spaying or neutering of all dogs, including animals owned by breeders, unless they pay a $100 annual fee.

February marks the beginning of a seven-month period during which many female dogs are in full estrus and male dogs in their vicinity become doubly dangerous, animal services officials said.

Cervantez said what terrified him most was that the dogs appeared to be going for his neck.

“There’s no doubt they were trying to kill me,” he said. Cervantez added that he had seen the dogs before from a distance.

To help pay for some of Cervantez’s medical costs, an account has been started at People’s Bank of California in Sylmar by the Animal Issues Movement of Los Angeles and Orange County.

For his part, the native of the Mexican state of Guanajuato said he just wants to get better and get on with his life and go back to work.

“There’s still pain in my head and right arm especially, but I’m feeling better,” he said.