South Dakota: Woman attacked and her Dachshund named Gunner viciously mauled to death by neighbor's pit bulls

SOUTH DAKOTA -- People usually feel safe in their own backyards. However, a local family had that secure feeling compromised last week.

On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 25, Tonnya Juhnke was inside her home when she heard her daughter yell, “The pit bulls are out!”

The pit bulls, which were owned by neighbors across the street, had been a nuisance for some time, Juhnke said.

“Everybody had complained about the dogs many times,” she said. “They never stopped barking and always fought with each other very aggressively.”

According to Juhnke, this was most likely due to them being left on the neighbors’ enclosed porch with no food or water and having little human interaction. They would sometimes even escape.

“My children have had to get rides from neighbor kids’ homes because of the dogs being out,” she said.

On this morning, the dogs’ owners had been gone for three days, she added.
When Juhnke went outside, she discovered the two dogs in her backyard. Her dachshund, Gunner, who was also outside, was on a chain.

“The pit bulls were on a mission,” Juhnke claimed. “They wanted Gunner.”

She yelled at the dogs to leave and they seemed to back off. When she reached for her dog, though, they attacked her.

“One was on one arm and the other attacked my legs,” Juhnke said. “It felt like they were trying to take me down.”

She kicked at the dog biting her legs and punched the other one, which was latched to her arm, in the nose.

“I thought my kids were gonna watch me die,” she recalled.

She eventually got the dogs to release her and made it to safety. Once inside her home, she focused on bandaging her wounds while keeping her kids from going outside to get Gunner.

Sadly, Gunner the little Dachshund didn’t survive.

“I had to save my own children from getting hurt like I did, so I just had to shut the door,” Juhnke said.

While waiting for the police and ambulance to arrive, she used her car to block the dogs from leaving the yard.

Upon the police arriving at the scene, Yankton County Sheriff Jim Vlahakis said the two pit bulls charged towards the responding deputy, who shot the dogs, killing them both.

Vlahakis said protocol was followed in the incident.

“(The deputy) filed a report outlining the circumstances — he was being attacked,” Vlahakis said. “That’s sufficient. (They’d ) already killed another dog and attacked a person.”

Juhnke was taken to the hospital emergency room for her injuries, the worst of which was a deep, 3-inch gash on her left arm that needed 23 stitches.

The incident has been forwarded to the state’s attorney’s office to determine if any charges against the owner of the attacking dogs may be needed. Vlahakis was unsure of which charges, if any, could be filed.

“I’m grateful it didn’t happen on a day when I wasn’t home,” Juhnke said. “I wish my kids didn’t have to experience that. It was a terrifying scene.”

 

 

(Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan - Oct 4, 2016)