Grandmother savagely attacked by German Shepherd

AUSTRALIA -- A BADGER Creek grandmother recently savaged by a German Shepherd in Badger Creek has described the attack as terrifying.

 Ruth Halligan, 70, says she was just four doors from her Koala Avenue home when the dog appeared from nowhere and attacked, ripping her arm in two places and causing massive bruising to her buttocks and leg.

 

After spending five days in Maroondah Hospital and with muscle and nerve damage to her arm, she says she believes had the dog attacked a child, it could have killed.

 Mrs Halligan said she had been told her injuries could result in permanent nerve damage and require skin grafts in the future.

 The attack happened at around 4pm on Saturday, 24 November, as she set off for a walk around Sanctuary Estate.

“I didn’t see him coming at all until at the same time as I heard a loud “woof”,” she said. “He just went for me, ripping the muscle in the top of my arm wide open and again down below the elbow.”

Mrs Halligan said the dog backed off as she screamed for help but continued to threaten with its hair standing on end, baring its teeth and flaring its nose.

“He backed off about two metres and as I was yelling for help and thinking to myself ‘don’t run’, he leaped again. I thought he was going for my face,” recalled Mrs Halligan.

 She said she turned as the dog came at her and was just far enough away that he grabbed her on the buttocks causing extensive bruising but not close enough to inflict another serious wound.

 Mrs Halligan said the owner retrieved the dog and called an ambulance.

“She was very distressed and apologetic; you only had to look at my arm laying wide open to know it was a very bad situation,” she said.

 The dog was seized by Yarra Ranges Council and Mrs Halligan has been told the matter will now need to go before the Magistrates’ Court to decide on the any legal ramifications, and what will happen to the dog.

 Mrs Halligan said she has a dog of her own, but was surprised there was no immediate action to put the dog down.

“It was a very big dog, and a very vicious, unprovoked attack. If that had been a child, that child could be dead.

“If it was my dog, I would not have hesitated to have it put down straight away,” she said.

 Yarra Ranges Council was unable to answer the Mail’s request for information on the incident prior to deadline.

(Star News Group - Dec 10, 2012)