Published: August 08, 2007 12:29 am      

Local man recovers from pit bull attack

Face swollen to the point co-workers had trouble recognizing him, R.D. Smith Tuesday evening recalled the vicious attack he barely survived from a pit bulldog as Smith worked on the plumbing of a Meridian home Monday.

He knows he’s lucky to be alive.

“I was just beginning to work on the leak when out of nowhere the pit came at me from a dark space underneath the house,” said Smith, who with slurred speech recounted the attack. “It happened so fast I didn’t have time to do anything.”

Smith’s injuries are extensive. Doctors say the 68-year old handyman from north of Chunky may not be able to talk clearly again, much less eat normal meals as he did before the attack.

Kasey Akin, property manager for Sunflower Management Group that owns rental properties in Lauderdale County and Meridian, said the couple who was renting the home and who owned the dog, Eddie and Loretta Bennett, would be evicted.

“The conditions for the dog there were horrible,” said Akin, who went to the home located at 3411 11th St. after the attack. “The dog, a female, had just had her first litter and the puppies were dead, lying in a baby’s plastic wading pool.”

Akin and another co-worker brought Smith soups, straws, protein drinks and many other items he can consume in place of the normal solid foods. His face and mouth are sore from the attack. After 100 stitches, Smith is at home recovering from his wounds.

Pit bulldogs have been in the news recently when Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and two other men were arrested for allegedly running a dog fighting operation in Georgia.

Called to the home at about 5:20 p.m., Smith knew a pit bull was kept at the home but he didn’t see it as he entered the back yard. He immediately spotted the problem, a water leak, and crawled into the space between the floor of the home and the ground. He then began to fix the leak with a pipe wrench. Somewhere in the shadows was the dog.

When Smith realized he wasn’t alone, the dog had already clamped its jaws over his nose, ripping into his lips. As the dog shook, Smith tried to reach his pocket knife but he was pinned against a floor support piling. His hand then fell on the handle of the pipe wrench.

Struggling mightily in the crawl space, Smith was able to whack the dog several times with the wrench until it finally let go. Drenched in blood and dirt, Smith pulled himself out from under the house.

“If I hadn’t had the wrench, I would be dead right now,” Smith said painfully.

Akin said the Bennetts have been given notice they are to move out of the home. She said the couple violated the no pet clause of the renter’s contract.

“If we allow pets, such as these kinds of dogs, then if they bite somebody walking along the street, we’re liable,” said Akin. “That’s why we don’t allow pets.”

Animal Control for the City of Meridian picked up the dog and, according to Akin, was scheduled to be put to sleep as soon as Smith can positively identify it as the one that attacked him.