Plymouth father survives brutal attack by neighbor’s pit bulls

PLYMOUTH, Minn. – A father recounts a brutal pit bull attack he suffered outside his Plymouth home this week.

Emil Mammadov had parts of his face torn off and required stitches all over his body after two of his neighbor’s dogs attacked him around midnight on Monday.

Mammadov is Azerbaijani and doesn’t speak much English, so his daughter Fatima Mammadova translated for him when he spoke to WCCO.

“The dogs were all aiming at his neck, and he just didn’t care about the rest of his body,” Fatima Mammadova said. “He was trying to protect his neck. And he knows that these dogs are very aggressive.”

Mammadov’s wife, Ilaha Mammadova, and his daughter ran outside when they heard his torment.

“He screamed with what was left of his lungs, which he could still say with all his might [my mother and sister] also keep away from the dogs,” said Fatima Mammadova.

They turned on some lights and the dogs ran away.

“The moment that changed the willpower in him was when he saw my mother and my sister,” said Fatima Mammadova. “That gave him more strength to get up.”

Plymouth police are investigating the attack. There were no arrests.

The Mammadovs say both pit bulls and two others were taken away from their neighbors and quarantined.

“Hopefully they don’t come back because they’re not really safe for our community,” Ilaha Mammadova said. “Most of the time they are off-leash and walking in their backyard all the time, and we have so many kids around us riding bikes, running around and playing.”

Mammadov will lose his job as a professional chef for at least a few weeks. But he says this incident showed him how strong he is.

“He has four children,” said Fatima Mammadova. “He has to raise them, and he kept fighting just for us.”

Ilaha Mammadova shared the first thing her husband said when he arrived at the emergency room.

“He said it was good that it was me and not the children because it was them [wouldn’t] survive,” she said.