Man in critical condition after a Sulphur dog attack

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Sulphur police say a 27-year-old man was airlifted and remains in critical condition at a Lafayette hospital after being mauled by three pit bulls at a Sulphur home.

Law enforcement says the man went to the house on Platt Street to visit a family member, but that relative was not home. The owner of the dogs told him not to go into the backyard where “beware of dog” signs are plastered.

“He came in and when he got to my porch I said ‘please, please get out of my yard,’” says Brandi Cormier, who owns the dogs. “I don’t know since they’ve been beat, they are very protective. I’m here alone. He ignored me.”

Pit bull rescue workers are chiming in following the incident.

“Even though we are a pit bull rescue, I don’t want people to think by any measure that I am defending these dogs - what they did was absolutely atrocious because someone is fighting for their life right now,” says Renee Smith with Lake Charles Pit Bull Rescue.

Police say that man has serious facial and skull damage along with severe wounds to his legs.

“I’m so sorry for his family,” says Cormier. “I’m so sorry this happened. This has scarred me for the rest of my life. Everybody says pray for his family. But what about me? I tried to save him. I tried to make him get out.”

Cormier says her dogs have never been this agressive, she agrees something needs to be done about them. Adding, she even told officers to shoot the dogs on site during the mauling. Instead, officers tazed one of the dogs, putting a stop to their attack, that evidence still in Cormier’s backyard.

“I’m gonna have them spayed and neutered and one of them is a 10,000 dollar breed dog,” says Cormier. “So that takes income away from my house. He’s a wonderful dog, when you come in the gate, he hugs you.”

A case of catch-22 for pit bull advocates.

“Looking at it from a rescue standpoint in that these dogs have critically injured someone and they are human aggressive, that is never a good thing,” says Smith. “We don’t adopt out human aggressive dogs.”

Four dogs are in quarantine for ten days at Sulphur Animal Control where they will be tested for rabies. At this time, no one has been cited for the incident.