OCEANSIDE, California (KGTV)—An Oceanside man says he and his puppy were mauled by an unleashed dog while out for an evening walk.

On Monday around 11 p.m. near Albertsons on Mission Avenue, Kevin Humphrey was taking his 7-month-old terrier mix Stitch out for his final walk when he saw a homeless man and his brown-and-white pit bull, loose. Humphrey says the owner managed to catch up to the dog and leash him.

Humphrey went on with his walk along the back side of the shopping center, when he says he saw the dog, unleashed again. Humphrey picked his dog up and started running, but didn’t get far.

“It just starts biting at me and biting at me. He tries to bite my dog’s throat out,” said Humphrey.

Humphrey says the dog bit him in the back and arm before latching onto his puppy’s throat. His puppy’s life on the line, Humphrey jammed his hand into the pit bull’s jaws.

“I put my hand in the dog’s mouth so he wouldn’t bite. I’m crying, ‘Don’t kill my dog! Don’t kill my dog!'” said Humphrey.

After a tortuous 20 minutes, the dog finally let go. Humphrey raced to get help for his dog and then himself. Stitch suffered more than a dozen bites. For Humphrey, torn tendons and bone fragments in his hand led to two surgeries.

An Oceanside man says he and his puppy are healing after they says an unleashed dog mauled them while on an evening walk this week. https://t.co/POBBIgvAv8 — 10News (@10News) August 24, 2019

The San Diego Humane Society says the homeless man contends Humphrey went into his tent and provoked his 4-year-old dog, which Humphrey denies. The pit bull is under a 10-day quarantine. If he’s reclaimed, he’ll have to wear a muzzle.

‘Most Abused Dogs on Earth’

Animal rights group PETA has said that pit bulls are “the most abused dogs on Earth.”

“Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbers—and since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that don’t slam the door in the dogs’ faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined,” the group said.

Karen Delise, research director for the National Canine Research Council and author of “The Pitbull Placebo,” has investigated hundreds of dog bite incidents.

She wrote in a now-taken down article: “My study of dog bite-related fatalities occurring over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership/management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining dogs, and maintaining them as resident dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding/protection, fighting, intimidation/status),” according to a prior report from The Epoch Times.

Dog Bite Statistics

DogsBite.org says that “each day, about 1,000 U.S. citizens require emergency care treatment for serious dog bite injuries. Annually, about 9,500 citizens are hospitalized due to dog bite injuries.”

In a 13-year analysis, the website says that of 433 fatal dog attacks in the United States, pit bulls contributed to 66 percent, or 284 deaths.

Rottweilers, the second on the list, inflicted 10 percent of attacks that resulted in human death, the report says.

German shepherds accounted for 4.6 percent of fatal attacks.

Mixed-breed dogs accounted for 3.9 percent, and the American bulldog was next at 3.5 percent, the report said.

The Mastiff and Bullmastiff accounted for 3.2 percent of deaths.

Last on the list were huskies, which accounted for 3 percent of fatal attacks.

The report compiled fatal dog attacks between 2005 and 2017, showing that 48 percent of the victims were children aged 9 or younger.