Four years after his daughter was mauled, father also bitten in pit bull attack
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include the correct owner of two dogs attacked by a pit bull in Wilmington.While the rabies vaccination once required as many as 30 shots in the stomach, it now requires at a maximum four.
The father of a Delaware girl who nearly lost her arm in a 2014 pit bull attack was bitten by two pit bulls himself on Saturday and is undergoing a series of rabies shots.
"I just turned around, and they just were on me," Todd Ruckle said in a video recorded from the hospital and posted on Facebook. "One was on my leg, and the other one came up to my face and got my lip, but that's not bad. My leg's the really bad one."
His daughter Emily Ruckle was mauled by a pit bull named Frank while at the family's home in Newark. It was four years ago, this month. At the time, she was 8 years old.
Emily's brother, Jack, had moved in with the Ruckles two months before, bringing the dog with him. It belonged to his father, who had recently moved out of state. Maria and Todd Ruckle weren’t really happy about the pit bull being in their home, but Jack was attached to the dog, which almost died before moving in.
In the first 12 hours after the attack, Emily essentially bled out four times. She underwent more than two years of surgeries and rehab to restore function to her arm. After a final surgery in 2016, she regained some of the function in her right hand.
The Ruckles have been trying to move on from the attack, but on Saturday, Emily's father, Todd Ruckle, was bitten by pit bulls himself while showing a house in Wilmington's Little Italy neighborhood. He and his wife are real estate agents.
The dogs were down the street, running loose. The first dog grabbed onto Ruckle’s leg, he told The News Journal on Wednesday. As he worked to take that one off, he said, the other pit bull went up his chest, lunging for his face.
“I had jaws coming at me,” he said. “The jaws were so big. It was as big as my head coming at me.”
Ruckle said he was able to push the second pit bull away before it bit his face.
“They just snapped like a millimeter from taking my face off,” he said. The dog continued fighting Ruckle, striking the former Newark councilman’s face. “I’ve got a big fat lip over it.”
Ruckle said his daughter was doing well, but she, too, was shaken up.
“She wouldn’t even talk to me about it,” he said. “I don’t know what to do. How could this happen?”
“I’m just very emotional. I’ve got a lot of flashback stuff going on."
THE JOURNEY TO SAVE EMILY'S ARM
Part 1: Mauling sends Newark 8-year-old onjourney to save her arm
Part 2: Savage pit bull attack leavescomplicated case for Newark girl
Part 3: The Warrior Princess - Emily Ruckle fights final surgery
He reported the attack to Delaware's Office of Animal Welfare, but they did not ask for a description of the two dogs, Ruckle said on Facebook. The dogs were quarantined, but the owners did not have proof that they were vaccinated against rabies.
Andrea Wojcik, a spokesperson for the Animal Welfare Office, said officers did not request a description of the dogs because they had the owner’s address.
"The owner was not able to provide proof of vaccination," Wojcik said in an email. "Citations were issued to the owner for dog at large that bites without provocation, failure to show proof of licenses and failure to provide proof of rabies vaccine. Each violation was cited two times, one for each dog.
"The dogs have been quarantined at home."
"No vaccinations. No nothing. It's absolutely ridiculous," Ruckle said.
As a result, Ruckle had to get a round of rabies shots on Saturday and a second round Tuesday. If it can't be determined the dogs are disease free, he'll have to get two more rounds of shots on Saturday and Sept. 29.
On Facebook, he told family and friends that the bite did not go to the bone, but did leave behind three punctures. He also got a tetanus shot and a shot of antibiotics.
"I'm really messed up with these things. My eyes are going all weird," he said after getting the shots Saturday. While the rabies vaccination once required as many as 30 shots in the stomach, it now requires at a maximum four.
Some patients also get another shot called rabies immune globulin when they get the first dose of the vaccine.
"I can't believe I've had six (...) shots," he said after the first round on Saturday. "Three went directly in the wound, one in my arm and two in my butt cheeks. I can't say it enough. If you're a dog owner ... you need a leash; you don't let them ever go outside."
After his daughter was attacked in 2014, Ruckle advocated for stronger animal control laws such as mandatory insurance for dog owners. The family received letters from pit bull advocates, wife Maria told The News Journal. One wrote that her daughter should have been shot instead of the dog.
In March, Wilmington resident Diane Olin White also had a run in with a pit bull. She was walking her two dogs – Stella, a brown 50-pound boxer mix, and Darcy, a white 17-pound poodle and Jack Russell mix, when they were attacked by a stray.
Stella suffered puncture wounds and survived, but it was too late for Darcy. Police transferred 911 calls about the attack to a state animal control officer, who was already responding to another complaint and couldn't immediately respond to the scene.
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Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies. Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.