The attacks happened one after the other Wednesday evening on Birch Street then over to Conway Street. Animal Control says it's a lab-chow mix. Neighbors the dog never seemed aggressive before, it just snapped.
The attack left 75 year old Bobbie Goswick with a chunk out of her ear, scratches to her face and missing flesh from her stomach, on down.
"Both arms, that right there-- see that's plum to the bone and right here," dog attack victim Bobbie Goswick said.
She was walking out of her home when she says the lab-chow mix from next door suddenly came at her. She says the dog first knocked her down on the sidewalk, but then dragged her out into the road.
"I was just screaming for somebody to get that dog off of me, that it was taking my leg off of me," Goswick said.
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| Top: Mrs Goswick's home Bottom: Her next door neighbor's home |
Neighbors say the dog got out of the yard next door, possibly through a burnt spot in the wooden fence. The owner was trying to get him back in, when it went after her.
"He grabbed him a stick and was beating [his own] dog trying to get it off of me," Goswick said.
Police heard her screams and ran to help. They were already in the neighborhood answering a call that the same dog bit a 12-year-old boy on the leg while playing basketball. Ms. Goswick says she's thankful he didn't attack that boy or any other kids the way he did her.
"I do have great grandchildren and they've played out there on that sidewalk all summer and I just think well what if he got loose and attacked them? They couldn't have survived it," Goswick said.
Per policy, Whitfield County Animal Control says it's observing the dog for 10 days, but the owner has already signed papers for them to put it down afterward. Goswick says that gives her comfort to go back home, but she'll steer clear of any other neighborhood dogs.
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| Top: Reporter shows where the dog dragged her from her mailbox several feet into the roadway |
"I was always scared of the dog because dogs, I'm afraid they might bite me and it might be that he felt my tension, I don't know," Goswick said.
Ms. Goswick had surgery to her leg. She was released from the hospital Friday afternoon. She has a month of physical therapy to do. She says the owner and his family have been at her bedside and feel terrible about what happened.
She says she doesn't blame them. The owner was cited for not having the dog fully vaccinated.
(WRCB - Sept 21, 2012)
