A miniature American shepherd needed surgery and 15 stitches after two pit bulls attacked it during a walk on Edgewood Drive in Berea, while three more pit bulls surrounded the smaller dog without joining in. The attack happened on Oct. 22, according to a police report, after a man stepped out of a house on the street and was almost immediately followed by one of the pit bulls.
The Berea resident who was dog-sitting the shepherd told police that a second pit bull joined the attack once a woman also came out of the same house, according to a report from Cleveland.com. The man and woman tried to pull the two attacking dogs away, but they kept going until the resident, the man, the woman and a neighbor all worked together to separate the animals. The resident waited until the next day to call police and report what happened.
During the confrontation, the woman reportedly told the resident she would have the pit bulls euthanized and insisted the dogs were not normally vicious. She then left the scene with one of the pit bulls still in her possession. Both the man and woman declined to identify themselves or hand over veterinary records for the dogs when the resident asked, and she warned them she intended to involve police.
Surgery and Stitches for the Smaller Dog
The miniature American shepherd was taken for treatment and underwent surgery at Animal Clinic Northview in North Ridgeville, ultimately receiving 15 stitches for its injuries, per the same report. Police submitted an animal-bite-and-exposure report to Cuyahoga County. The county's animal shelter states that all dog bites must be reported to the board within 24 hours of an incident, according to the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter.
As of Thursday, police had not yet identified the man or woman connected to the pit bulls but planned to visit the Edgewood Drive house to track them down and interview them, the Cleveland.com report notes. Ohio law addresses situations where a dog attacks another animal even when it happens off the owner's property, according to the relevant section of the Ohio Revised Code.
Not the First Pit Bull Attack on a Berea Street
This is not the first time a pit bull has seriously hurt another dog in Berea in recent months. In September 2025, a dog was seriously injured when a pit bull attacked it on Beeler Drive after the pit bull's owner was lifted off her feet trying to control the animal and it broke loose, per the same account. That injured dog was taken to West Park Animal Hospital in Cleveland for treatment.
A County With Hundreds of Bites a Year
The Edgewood Drive attack adds to a pattern of dog bites across Cuyahoga County, where 736 bites were reported in 2024 alone, according to county Board of Health data cited by Cleveland.com. Statewide, Ohio records more than 15,000 dog bites every year, the outlet reported separately.
Cleveland classified 51 dogs as level 1 or 2 threats — the city's version of dangerous and vicious designations — in 2023 and 2024, then added another 23 through June 1, 2025. Cuyahoga County designated 30 dogs as dangerous over roughly the same two-year span, plus 15 more in the first half of 2025, and as of early September 2025, 19 dogs the county had deemed dangerous still remained in the community.
