AUSTIN, Texas — An Austin man is demanding answers after he and his two small dogs were injured after being violently attacked by a pit bull.
The attack happened Tuesday morning in Colorado Crossing, a neighborhood in southeast Austin near the airport.
Luke Cook was just seconds into a morning walk with his two chihuahuas and barely made it down the driveway and onto the street before he noticed an apparent stray dog up the street. Cook tried to pick up his dogs and bring them inside to wait for the dog to leave.
"I started walking up the driveway, and he was coming after us. No sooner than I could get them both in my hands that I was in the middle of the front yard," Cook said.
The pit bull attacked Cook and the dogs, trying to rip them out of his hands.
"It made a beeline towards my dog and didn't want me. It would have bit me if it wanted me," Cooks said. "At one point, Neumann's entire head was in the dog's mouth."
After getting up, Cooks said he tried to get the dogs away, and during the fight, he got knocked down again in the street.
"The only thing I'm thinking is I must stop this," Cook said. "It's going to kill my dogs. I have to stop it."
After screaming for help, Cook said his wife ran out and was able to get the dog to let go, allowing them to get the dogs to safety.
"In this situation, the dog was ready to have breakfast," Cook said. "There was nothing I could do because they're so small they couldn't defend themselves."
Cook had some nasty road rash on his knees and elbows, and scratches on his abdomen and back.
The 5-year-old Chihuahua, Neumann, had severe neck and head lacerations and a thigh injury, while the 8-year-old Chihuahua mix, Mattie, had broken teeth and neck and abdomen lacerations. The dogs needed to get emergency surgery at the VCA Ben White Animal Hospital, and their medical bills totaled nearly $5,000. The dogs are doing better now and on the mend from their injuries.
Cook's 3-year-old son typically joined him to walk the dogs in the morning but didn't because he slept in.
"It's unbelievable, dare I say miraculous, that the situation, as bad as it was, wasn't as bad as it could have been," Cook said.
Neighbors said this is not the first time they have had an aggressive dog attack while walking their dogs in this area. In fact, Cook said others had seen or been attacked by the same pit bull that attacked him in recent years. They want something to be done to address it before there's another incident.
"It's been our worst nightmare," Cook said. "We talk about it all the time. This neighborhood has a problem, and we love our dogs, but they're very small, and if some loose dog comes up and tries to do anything, even if it's play, there's so little that they could get hurt, and our worst nightmare came true this week."
They don't know if the dog is living in the neighborhood and got out or is a wild dog that found the neighborhood.
Cook's family and others are scared to spend time outside, walk their pets or allow their children to play outside because of the aggressive dogs.
"We're terrified to go for a walk in the neighborhood ... The rule of the house is we enter and leave through the garage," Cook said. "We go through the garage door in the hallway, shut it, and then open the garage and make sure there's no threat because I don't know when that dog's coming back."
Cook said his neighborhood has a problem with loose dogs in the neighborhood, partly because the fences around it allow the dogs to dig or wiggle under them.
"It doesn't seem to be getting any better. It seems to be getting worse," Cook said. I would like to see some action taken in the neighborhood to fix this problem and repair these fences and hold people accountable for how they're supposed to maintain their properties."
The HOA management company for Colorado Crossing, PMP Management called an emergency meeting on Thursday night to address the situation.
Cook also wants stricter laws around dangerous dogs in the state because it may not be his beloved dogs next time.
"Until we have the right laws in place, until people can take action, until it doesn't take a dog biting a human for something to happen to that dog, this will continue to happen," he said. "It's going to happen here again, and it could be a kid next time."
Last year, 131 severe biting events were reported in Austin, according to city data.
Cook said he did file a police report, and officers directed him to the Animal Protection Division. KVUE reached out to Austin police to ask about this incident and similar ones in the area, but we have not heard back.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help with vet bills.