Letter carrier recounts dog attack
CHRISTINE ROBINSON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Saturday, November 3, 2007 12:00 am
The postman had been bit five times before.
But when the 100-pound pit bull lunged at his face, he knew this time was different.
As a postal carrier, Len Epperson was taught to cover his head and neck if attacked by a dog. But when the pit bull was momentarily distracted, Epperson tried standing up. That's when the dog struck again.
"Oh man, now it's serious," he thought. "It's not just a dog bite, it's a serious mauling."
The 18-year letter carrier sat in his living room and recounted the noontime Tuesday dog attack that resulted in an ambulance ride to the emergency room and 26 stitches to close wounds to his nose and under his eye.
On a relatively normal day, Epperson collected the bundled mail in his postal truck and started for a house on 13th Street. He looked at the house and saw the screen door ajar and a barking, 100-pound pit bull running for him.
Epperson kicked the dog back several times, and struggled to remove his pepper spray from his belt. But the dog overtook the postal worker and knocked him to the ground, biting his ankles and forearms.
"I would kick him in the nose with the bottom of my foot and it would be just enough to push him back, but then he immediately kept coming on. He wasn't backing off, he wasn't giving up," Epperson recounted, sitting in his living room Thursday with bandages on his arms and legs.
A man and a girl stopped to help Epperson, and as they picked up the mail scattered by wind, the girl screamed at the dog to divert its attention.
"I really appreciated the man and woman who stopped to assist," Epperson said quietly. "But if he decided to turn and take one of them, they were both defenseless. There were so many blessings involved."
He got to his feet as the dog looked back and forth at Epperson and the girl, as the dog nudged Epperson's legs.
"I stood up and with my hands up by my head like this," he said, holding his hands and arms above his head - "and was frozen and wouldn't move. He kept looking at (the girl) and nudging me and I was waiting for him to take a big chunk out of my thigh, but he was confused at that point and he didn't know what to do. But I knew if I moved he would take me again."
An ambulance pulled up. Epperson told the driver not to get out of the vehicle, fearing the dog would attack. Seconds later, a police car parked behind the ambulance. The instant the police officer opened his door, the dog ran for the police cruiser.
"As soon as he started opening his door, why that dog hit his door like that, and he tased it," Epperson said Friday. As he spoke, Epperson's own dog, a pug, snored quietly at his feet.
Metro Animal Control officers arrived soon after and shot the dog with a tranquilizer dart as the ambulance drove away with Epperson in the back.
There are bite marks above Epperson's right eye, and seven stiches below. He said he felt blessed that the dog did not injure his eye.
His leg and arm wounds were cleaned and bandaged in the hospital.
Because the dog hadn't been vaccinated for rabies, Epperson began taking a series of rabies shots.
Rick Sulzen, manager of Metro Animal Control, said he'd never seen such a savage attack in his 23 years as an animal-control officer.
"It's not something that we have seen," Sulzen said. "As long as I have been here we haven't had a dog that continued to attack an individual."
This was an isolated incident, Sulzen believes, and he doesn't know why the dog persisted in attacking Epperson. But he thinks it began like most dog bites do, with an animal that's protecting its territory.
"Dogs are pack animals and want to belong to a pack, and then want to protect their pack and their territory," he said.
A dog's territory can be as limited as the house and as expansive as the neighborhood, Sulzen said, depending on how much owners let the dogs run loose.
This pit bull's owner signed him over to Metro at the scene. Metro euthanized the animal shortly thereafter so it could be tested for rabies.
If an animal bites a person and is current on its vaccines, it spends 10 days in quarantine, but because this dog was not current, it had to be euthanized, Sulzen said.
Even if the dog had been current on its vaccines, Sulzen said it would still have been euthanized because of the vicious nature of the attack.
Epperson said he felt bad for the people who lost their pet, which later tested negative for rabies, but also believes dog owners need to take more responsibility for their animals.
He said animals may be particularly agitated by mail carriers because they come and go everyday but never interact with homeowners.
"The dogs think you must be up to no good," he said.
Those who hit barking dogs with the mail may also be creating a negative association with mail carriers, he said.
In the meantime, Epperson hopes to return to work Monday and continue on that same route he's had for the past 12 years.
Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@casperstartribune.net