Pictured are Robert Stevens and his son, Bobby. Stevens was attacked by a dog on April 15 in Jamestown and suffered a “heavy scar” on his leg as a result. The attack came from out of nowhere, Stevens recalled. P-J photo by Nikk Holland

Robert Stevens had just exited his vehicle on Colfax Street in Jamestown to visit a friend when he felt an intense pressure on his leg.

“I was just reaching back to hit the key fob when I felt this pressure,” Stevens said of the April 15 attack. “I was shocked to look down — I didn’t even hear it or anything — and see this dog that’s got me by the leg. I was just stunned. I was having a great day, and I didn’t know how to react.”

Stevens, 57, said part of the shock was that he had no idea the dog was on its way to attack him.

“If you don’t see it running after you and you don’t have any time to prepare, all you do is look down and it’s already there,” Stevens said. “If I see a dog running at me, maybe I could start yelling, or maybe hop on my car, but if you have no warning … there’s no way to avoid it.”

After realizing a dog had bit him, he yelled at and struck the dog that had latched to his leg. After about 10 to 15 seconds, the dog let go. He backed away and tried kicking at it as a way to protect himself from more injuries.

“I stood up straight and I kicked the dog,” Stevens said. “With everything happening so quick, I lost my balance and fell down.”

After he fell, with his glasses and hat coming off in the process, neighbors and the dog owner realized what was happening and came to his assistance.

“When I fell down to the ground, my head was at the same height as the dogs face,” Stevens said. “Right at that point, it was about 5 feet from me coming at me. These people ran out into the street. At the same time, the owner had ran out.”

Jamestown animal control officer Greg Fye said defending oneself should always be a priority if being attacked by a dog. He noted that if it appears a dog is going to attack, stop, and yell at it while ensuring protection.

The different people coming out to the street is what made the dog run away from Stevens. He said the dog came from the house he was parked in front of.

“If those people didn’t come out, there was no reason for it to stop attacking me at that point,” Stevens said.

After the dog ran away, police were called. Stevens said he has a “heavy scar,” a sore back and numbness from the dog damaging nerves in his leg.

“Had it dug another half-inch in my leg, it would’ve taken a golf ball-sized chunk out of my leg, but he let go,” Stevens said.

“It’s disturbing when I think about it and it’s hard for me to even drive down the street, let alone to want to walk up and knock on a door,” he added. “I’m a little perturbed, it’s affecting me in many different types of ways.

After suffering the dog bite, doctors elected to allow the wound to bleed out as a way to flush out any potential bacteria that could lead to infection. There was another dog barking at the time, and Stevens wonders if that’s the reason why the dog ran out of the house and eventually attacked him.

“Maybe the dog inside heard a dog barking somewhere and just ran out the front door,” he said. “The door was wide open. It just ran right out, straight into the street, around my car and got me.”

Although he was injured, Stevens said he “finds it hard to have pity” for himself because people have been attacked by dogs resulting in worse injuries, or even death.

Stevens said nothing has resulted from the attack as a result of the laws regarding dog attacks in New York.

“The way the law is set up about dog bites, you really can’t do anything about it unless the dog was proven to have a history (of being aggressive),” Stevens said. “So now, I’m just sitting here, and there’s nothing anybody can do. I just don’t think it’s right.”

“And that’s it, you’re just stuck. There’s nothing you can do. You finish the rest of your life just being a victim,” he added. “It just happened to you and nobody has to answer or do anything about it.”

Stevens said he reached out to law enforcement and attorneys, but because the dog doesn’t have an aggressive record nothing can be done about it, and an attorney didn’t want to move forward with pursuing a lawsuit.

“You can handle the pain, it’s just the (mental) thing that stresses you,” Stevens said. “You go over to a friends house and they have a dog, or I see a dog in the backyard and I don’t smile now when I see a nice dog. It just changed things.”