Mom shields newborn baby from dog attack on NSW beach

AUSTRALIA -- A young mum has told of her terror of trying to protect her 11-week-old baby while they were being attacked by a pack of savage dogs.

Danielle Vaughan was walking with her 11-week old baby Abigail along East Corrimal Beach in Wollongong.

“Five dogs came barking up to us and one started biting me," she told 7News.

  

Her motherly instincts kicked-in: "I was trying to turn the pram away and I just kept getting bitten on the back of my legs. It was just really scary...really"

Danielle says if her two year-old son had also been with her, she would not have been able to save both.

 

"It would have ended fatally. If it was her or if it was my son, it would have been a lot worse. The puncture wounds that I have are very deep and if a child had sustained them it would not have ended well."

She says the dogs' handler refused to apologise, help or put the dogs back on their leashes.

“She said she didn't have to because she as on an off-leash dog area.”

I see a rough Collie, a German Shepherd and maybe a Labrador.

Fearing such an attack won't be the last, a Wollongong councillor is now campaigning for a law allowing unleashed dogs on beaches to be overturned.

Councillor Vicki Curran says: "We don't seem to have adequate rangers. Either that or we don't seem to be able to issue fines."

A flaw in state legislation stops experienced dog-catching contractors from intervening because they are not council employees.

According to dog-catcher Wayne Asplet: "If I go to a job now I cannot go past the fence."

Despite her ordeal Danielle supports off-leash areas but only if councils offer real protection: "because there’s good dogs and good owners but sometimes there's not"

As she knows all too well.

(Yahoo!7 News - Dec 9, 2014)