Texas: Escaped dogs injure woman, attack and kill her service dog in Cedar Hill

TEXAS -- A woman was injured and her service dog was mauled to death by dogs near her Cedar Hill retirement center last Sunday.

Cedar Hill Police Lieutenant Colin Chenualt says the victim, 64-year-old Bobbye Nance, took her service dog for a walk in her Cedar Hill apartment complex just after 1 a.m. Sunday.

That's the same time that the owner of three dogs that live nearby let them out into their fenced in backyard. But police say a storm had blown down the fence.

"This was the perfect storm of tragic events,” Chenualt said. "The tragedy is that obviously her dog died as a result of these injuries and she's hospitalized, it's just a terrible set of circumstances.”

Chenault says the owner of the three dogs cooperated with investigators on the scene.

"He did everything he was supposed to do, you know, as soon as you realize your dogs are missing, and hopefully you will find them, you know, go look for them. He did find them but unfortunately they were involved in something pretty tragic,” Chenualt said.

Tri-Cities Animal Shelter Manager Tammy Wilson says strong storms can affect animals like they can people.

"The winds were so high that day to them it could have been like somebody was constantly trying to break into the house, rattle, rattle, crash, crash, boom, over and over. So they could have been agitated from that,” Wilson said. “The only ones that will ever know what happened are those dogs and the people that were on the scene.”

(FOX 4 News - Dec 23, 2016)