A 20-year-old man was injured when a dog attacked him after the man gave him water.
John Welsh, a spokesman for the Riverside County Animal Services Department, told The Los Angeles Times that the attack was reported Sunday at 11 p.m.
Welsh said the man brought water to the dog, who was wandering around an Eastvale, California, neighborhood, because he felt sorry for it. The dog put its paw on the man's chest and attacked, dragging the man and biting off part of the victim's left bicep and biting the man's left leg and ankle.
The man called for help, and family ran outside, kicking and hitting the dog to get it off the victim.
When that didn't work, they went inside and grabbed steak knives, which they used to repeatedly stab the dog until it let go.
Animal control collected the animal, who was by then lethargic, from the victim's front yard.
Riverside Animal Control Officer Will Luna said the dog stood at attention when officers arrived. "That dog must have recognized me and (my) uniform and as someone of authority," he said. "He didn’t show any aggression toward me at all."
Ian Ilano told KCAL that he gave the dog water about an hour before the attack on the 20-year-old man.
“He looked thirsty. So I gave him water and food, and I fed him until he was done,” he said.
Ilano's mother, Maria Sajorda, said the dog did not seem aggressive to them.
“The dog was pretty friendly," she said. "We wanted to keep the dog for a little while. He wasn’t really aggressive."
Examination of a microchip in the dog showed that it was a police dog at some point.
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