Arizona: Dog attacks 65-year-old woman, owner flees

ARIZONA -- A vicious dog attack outside a grocery store in the West Valley has the victim asking for help finding that dog’s owner.

The 65-year-old victim said it happened when she was walking into the Bashas' at Reems and Waddell roads on Saturday. She cut through a patio area near a side door where a person was sitting with his German shepherd mix. The dog attacked.

"He grabbed my hand and I jumped back," Donna Jacobs said, describing how the dog attack started. "And then he grabbed my leg and just started ripping the tissue in my leg."

Jacobs' husband, Ken, rushed her into the store where employees helped check the injury.

"Then then blood started coming through my pants. It just hurt so bad," Jacobs said.

During the chaos, Ken turned around to look for the dog and its owner and saw them running away from the store. They left and didn’t come back.

The police officer who responded to the scene was unable to locate the large white dog or its owner.

Jacobs was taken to the hospital where she was told the dog would need to be check for rabies. If the dog cannot be evaluated, Jacobs will have to decide whether to get a series of painful rabies shots as a precaution.

"It wasn't like [the dog owner] had to worry that I'm going to sue him for tons of money," Ken said. "All I wanted to do is make sure that dog had its shot and doesn't have rabies."

Unusual aggression can be a symptom of rabies.

The Jacobses said they don't want the dog put down.

"If [the attack] is a one-time incident, no. I’m a dog lover," Jacobs said. "I just want them to take responsibility for their dog, so the dog doesn't hurt anybody else or hurt a child.”

The Jacobses also would like the dog owner to pay the medical bills. The copay and medication came to a little more than $100. That number will go up if she has to get rabies shots.

Rabies attacks the brain and is almost always fatal once the symptoms manifest. While there is no cure for rabies, it can be prevented.

"Rabies post-exposure vaccinations consist of a dose of human rabies immune globulin and four doses of rabies vaccine given on the day of the exposure, and then again on days 3, 7, and 14," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Surprise Police Department is investigating the incident.

(Tucson News New - Jan 26, 2016)