A Melbourne woman who was attacked by dogs the day before the same pack mauled a mother pushing a pram has opened up about her traumatic ordeal.
Late last month, three American staffy-style dogs attacked Christine, 71, in Sunbury, 40km northwest of Melbourne’s CBD, knocking her to the ground, biting her face, legs and back and breaking her hip.
Shockingly, the same dogs were still on the loose the next day, when they brutally mauled the 35-year-old mother as she pushed her toddler in a stroller, while on their way to pick up an older child from school.
Christine was rescued by two men who pulled the dogs off her, but they were also injured by the animals.
Christine said for the first time that the second attack, after what happened to her, ‘should never have happened’ because the dogs should have been taken away.
She continues to receive treatment at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, including a skin graft.
The three dogs were euthanized within hours of the attack on the mother, but Christine said Hume City Council officials should have acted sooner.
“It is an unpleasant situation and it should not have happened,” she told the newspaper Herald Sun.
A Melbourne woman who was attacked by dogs (pictured) the day before the same pack mauled a mother pushing a pram has opened up about her traumatic ordeal
“I sympathize with the young lady who was attacked the next day, that should never have happened.”
She said the dogs should have been confiscated after they attacked her, saving the mother from being thrashed the next day.
“I know how I felt when I was attacked, but she also had to protect her baby,” she said.
“That must have been heartbreaking for her.”
Christine spent ten days in hospital after the ‘terrifying’ attack and said one of the ‘big bites’ she suffered ‘will take quite a long time to heal’.
“They made me fly and I broke my hip so I couldn’t get up to go anywhere, and they just left me on the ground,” she said.
She thanked the “very good Samaritans” who came to her aid.
Christine said she was unable to thank them at the time due to her injuries and shock, but hopes to meet them again so she can do so.
When the second attack occurred, neighbors were alerted after hearing the mother’s screams, only to discover she was “bleeding from the head, ears and nose.”
The dogs brutally mauled a 35-year-old mother (photo on the ground) as she pushed her toddler in a stroller
The dogs’ owner (pictured) apologized to the community for the incidents, saying her dogs ‘were my family’
Among those who came to the mother’s aid was the dog’s owner, who said she was “humiliated” and “sorry” for what her pets had done.
But she said she knew nothing about the attack on Christine the previous day or she would have “kept (the dogs) inside.”
She told me 7News that she had “put my body over the woman” to try to stop the attack and was grateful that they had not focused their attention on the child.
“It’s just heartbreaking to me and I’m just praying for her,” she said.
“I’m so very happy that the baby was okay… Thank God the dogs didn’t come near the baby.”
She also apologized to the council and community for the incidents, saying her dogs “were my family.”
But neighbors said what happened was inevitable as the dogs continually escaped from their backyard and terrorized them for months.
“They have been reported many times,” one man said. “They scare you to death.”
At least five neighbors said they complained to the council about the dogs, but nothing was ever done.
On one occasion, a neighbor was told that they would have to restrain the dogs themselves before the rangers would investigate.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Hume City Council for comment.