A loose pit bull that attacked and injured a man in Ketchikan Monday afternoon was restrained by animal control authorities, Alaska State Troopers said.
According to a Tuesday dispatch, troopers responded just before 2 p.m. Monday to the vicinity of Christopher Road, where they found emergency medical services treating 70-year-old Jeff Rodger. Rodger had been bitten in both legs, but refused to be taken to a hospital.
"Rodger told AST he was out for his daily walk when the loose dog confronted him on the street," troopers wrote. "Troopers remained in the area with EMS until animal control arrived and removed the dog which was still loose and barking."
Eddie Blackwood, director of Ketchikan Gateway Borough Animal Protection, said that Rodger's wife had taken him from the scene to get a tetanus shot. The dog's owner lived in the neighborhood, but was not present at the time of the attack.
"When (responding officers) arrived, the dog was on its own property," Blackwood said. "But the victim explained that he had been in the road, and the dog chased him onto his own property where he was bitten."
Authorities are holding the pit bull under a mandatory 10-day quarantine for rabies. Blackwood said Ketchikan has a leash law, as well as a statute that allows for dogs to be loose within an area if their owners have verbal control over them.
Officers can cite a dog as dangerous or potentially dangerous, which makes an owner abide by certain conditions to keep the animal.
No citations against the owner were immediately issued Monday, but Blackwood said they were likely to be made Tuesday.