NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida man is recovering at the hospital from injuries he suffered after a pack of dogs mauled him while walking down a sidewalk in Northwest Miami-Dade.
Surveillance video captured the vicious attack along Northwest 103rd Street near 12th Avenue around noon, Tuesday.
“He was screaming and looked like, ‘Help! Help!'” said a witness, “but I didn’t know what was going on.”
The witness, who didn’t want to use his name or show his face on camera, said he was working in the back of the restaurant next door when it happened.
“If somebody need help, if you can help them, you gotta help them,” said the man, “so I didn’t even think about me. I was thinking about him.”
He said, after hearing screams and seeing someone needed help, he grabbed a two-by-four.
“I hit two of them, and I knocked them down on the floor,” said the man. “The other three, they got scared and went inside, and I was able to close the gate.”
He said the victim was walking home from work.
“I think he got bit right over here in this leg and his arm,” said the man.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said they responded to reports of a possible dog bite.
Surveillance video showed crews putting the victim on a stretcher before transporting him to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The patient suffered multiple bites, cuts and bruises in his torso and extremities.
7News talked to the victim’s son outside the hospital who identified the victim as Jacques Notis, who is in his 60s.
“I was at work. My sister text me that a dog had just bit my dad,” said the victim’s son. “I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ and then she sent me the video. When I saw it, I was rushing to come see what happened to my dad. From looking at the camera, I can see like five, six dogs attacked him.”
At first, the owner of the dogs, Julio Alvarenga, didn’t want to speak to 7News, but he changed his mind.
He showed the chain on the gate and explained he saw the gate closing prior to the attack.
Alvarenga believes the dogs may have triggered the sensor, reopening the gate. He said he never would have imagined his dogs would get out.
“This is a very serious incident, and so we’re taking it very seriously,” said Miami-Dade Animal Services spokesperson Flora Beal.
Miami-Dade Animal Services hauled away five dogs.
“They are bulldog mixed, and they have been seized, and they are in our custody at the moment,” said Beal.
Notis’ family said dog owners need to be responsible for their pets.
“You need to know how to put some system of security,” said one family member.
“When you have six dogs or people like this at your house, you need to know how to put in some system of security,” the victim’s son said. “It’s really sad for us. It’s really sad for us.”
Alvarenga said he is prepared to take responsibility for the attack and cover the victim’s medical expenses.
“If something happens to him, I’m going to cover everything,” he said. “I will pay for everything.”
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