The next, "I was being attacked," she said.
Kalamazoo County Animal Control handles 400-500 reports of dog violence a year, director Steve Lawrence said.
Reading about National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which was May 19-25, prompted Stewart to recall her own experience as a victim, and to advise others: Report dangerous dogs.
The Chesapeake Bay retriever that attacked Stewart never left its own yard that day in 2007. It had no history of biting complaints.
But the dog tore a chunk from her left arm, and nailed her right elbow, too, Stewart said, before she was able to break free.
Aggressive dogs
Brody, the dog that attacked her, belonged to Stewart's next-door neighbor's roommate. The animal was accepting of her when she was visiting at the neighbor's house, but barked aggressively at the fence between the properties when she was outside working in her own yard or garden, she said.
The dog's owner assured her the animal didn't bite.
But months earlier, Brody had attacked her own dog, Madonna, a shepherd mix, over the fence, tearing at that dog's face when Madonna jumped up and put her paws on the fence.
In hindsight, Stewart regrets not reporting that fight between dogs. Lawrence, the animal control director, said reporting such acts of aggression toward people or other dogs can help authorities establish a pattern of behavior, to establish a record of an animal's behavior.
A new dangerous dog law being drafted in Lansing by state Rep. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, may help officers use that kind of information to assure that owners of aggressive animals take extra steps to control their animals and prevent attacks, Lawrence said.
The attack
The day of the attack on her, Stewart was in the corner of her lot at the back fence, speaking to the woman who lived behind her.
"He came out of nowhere, grabbed my arm and was ripping it back and forth," Stewart said.
She screamed at the dog and struck it on the head several times, but he would not release his grip. So, with her free hand she squeezed her thumb into the corner of the dog's mouth to force its jaws apart -- and he let go, but then grabbed her other arm.
The neighbor ran to call 911.
At that point, Stewart said, her own dog realized what was happening and rushed to her defense, attacking the dog over the fence.
"As I grabbed my dog and pulled her down, my next-door neighbor came out," scolding the dog for attacking her dog, she said. When he saw her bloodied arms and realized she had been attacked, he told her he would take her to the hospital.
"I went into the house, grabbed some kitchen towels to put over my arms, as I was walking out the police and ambulance arrived," she said.
They took over her first aid, and as she lay in the ambulance, with IV tubes in place, she said she began to go into shock.
Stewart said she was in surgery for two hours, and her left arm was bandaged for a month. There was some nerve damage, she said, that affected use of her arm for almost two years.
While she was being patched up, animal control officers were visiting the dog's owner. It was the animal's first documented attack on a person, and the dog never actually left its own property. But the dog's owner voluntarily had the animal euthanized, saving Stewart the anxiety of meeting it every time she went into her yard, she said.
She sued the landlord's homeowner's insurance company to get her medical bills paid, she said. She would not say how much the bills were or the amount of the settlement.
Both sides of the law
Lawrence said of the 400-500 reports of dog violence his department documents each year, only one or two a month result in serious injuries to people or other dogs. Of those that do, most owners voluntarily surrender their dogs to be put down, Lawrence said, a less costly alternative than paying the county to house the animal during the long weeks a show-cause hearing may require.
Lawrence said he has worked with lawmakers for years to try to come up with a system for holding owners more accountable for controlling dangerous pets before incidents occur that end in injury.
Stewart said she's not sure how she feels about the current legislation being drafted to tighten laws against vicious dogs. On the one hand, as a victim, she knows the hardship one bad dog can cause, and she believes owners of aggressive dogs need to be extremely vigilant.
So many say their dogs would not bite anyone, she said -- and yet, they do.
But as a dog owner herself, she knows how quickly dogs can attack, often with no history of aggressive behavior. She said her own pit bull mix, Lourdes, had played happily at the dog park with other animals until one day when Madonna, its friend, began to romp with another animal. Perhaps fearing for Madonna's safety, [according to Stewart] Lourdes jumped in and attacked the other dog.
"I paid (that dog's veterinary) bill, and now Lourdes is on the dangerous dog list," she said, with a documented attack.
"But I know that, and I don't want to take chance, I don't want to lose her," Stewart said. So Lourdes's days at the dog park or off leash are over.
According to a news release from the U.S. Postal Service, nationwide 5,879 postal employees were attacked last year and annually 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs.
The Postal Service, medical community, veterinarians and the insurance industry work together to educate the public that dog bites are avoidable during National Dog Bite Prevention Week.
(MLive - May 27, 2013)
