“We were just turning the corner to come home, and they barreled through their fence and attacked her," Marga Menzies said. "Such a helpless feeling.”
Menzies, 59, said the attack happened around 6:20 p.m. Monday while she was walking Sheba in an alley. She said the two dogs came from a home located at 427 Villa Grande Ave. S., in St. Petersburg.
“I tried to lift Sheba up in my arms, but I couldn’t because the dogs were pulling on her, and I was kicking and screaming for help," Menzies said. “The dogs were relentless. So I was hovering over her and I got bitten.”
Menzies said the attack finally stopped when someone screamed at the dogs.
“Sheba somehow got loose," she said. "I think the owners finally heard me screaming, or a neighbor, and all of a sudden, the dog turned around. One of the dogs was chasing after me, and then, all of a sudden, ... stopped... and went back to the house.”
Menzies said she was rushed by ambulance to an emergency room, and her husband took Sheba to an animal hospital. She said she had five puncture wounds that required seven stitches and a twisted knee.
“I was down on the ground and up and trying to kick," she said. "So I probably twisted my knee doing that.”
Menzies said Sheba was also badly injured.
"She was bleeding, and her coat was so horrible that she had fur that was just ripped off of her," she said. "It was horrible.”
A man who said he was the owner of the two dogs turned down a request for an interview. The man said he didn't know anything about the attack and had "no comment." He then blocked a hole in his back fence with a surf board and took his dogs inside the home.
Pinellas Animal Services Senior Control Officer John Hohenstern said the two dogs will be quarantined for 10 days while the agency investigates the attack. Hohenstern said Animal Services has gotten four previous complaints about those two dogs dating back to May 26, 2011.
The prior complaints include dogs running loose, a mailman chased, along with attacks on a neighbor's cat and dog, according to Hohenstern.
Resident Maureen Noonan said she was horrified to learn about the latest attack and wonders what it will take to stop it.
“Animal Services has been out," she said. "They’ve said we have had so many reports and nobody keeps pursuing this. The mailman, they had him on top of his truck for 2 hours. He couldn’t get down because they were waiting for him. This cat had to have its hip sewn back on. It had a shattered pelvis, shattered spine.”
Menzies said she has filed a bite report with Animal Services and wants the dogs put down.
“I don’t want them in my neighborhood,” she said. “I want the neighborhood to be safe. This is not the first instance with these dogs. They have gone through their fence before.”
(baynews9 - June 19, 2013)
