A great-grandmother screamed for help and prayed attacking dogs wouldn’t go for her face as one sank its teeth into her arm and dragged her off her mobility scooter.
Carol Stewart, 63, was flown to Hawke’s Bay Hospital with serious bite wounds to her legs and arms after the attack on a Wairoa street just before 2pm on Tuesday.
The bites on her arm will require skin grafts.
From her hospital bed, she told Hawke’s Bay Today she had been complaining for “weeks” about roaming dogs in the area.
Wairoa District Council said its staff had impounded two dogs after the attack on Murraee Street.
They have since been euthanised.
Carol said when she saw two dogs coming at her, she “knew there was no getting out of it”.
She managed to shoo the first one away.
“But the second one was in full flight straight at me. I used my leg to kick one away, but then it latched onto my arm and was throwing its head from side to side.
“I’m by no means a small person, but it dragged me to the ground.
“All I could think of as I screamed for help, was ‘please don’t go for my face’. It was horrific.
“The pain was out of this world. I’d rather give birth.”
A neighbour heard her calls for help and came running.
“I could see he was thinking, ‘how am I going to get this dog off her?’
“He grabbed its tail and pulled. When it let go, it turned to attack him and then suddenly just ran off.”
Carol called her daughter, Rebecca, immediately in a delirious state.
“I couldn’t understand what had happened, but my partner drove me to her,“ Rebecca said.
“Then he took our car to scare the dog off as it was hanging around down the street.
“He ended up sliding into a ditch and crashing the car. The police arrived, towed the car out and then came down to where we were.”
The car was written off.
Rebecca said an ambulance had been called, but the police helped Carol into their ute and drove her to Wairoa Hospital. She was later flown to Hawke’s Bay Hospital.
Carol said one of the dogs, the one she had shooed away, had been on her property “numerous times” and she had complained to Wairoa District Council.
Carol said she was fortunate her 5-year-old great-grandson wasn’t with her.
“I pick up my great-grandson from school. But for some reason on Tuesday, I got to the school and realised I was more than an hour early. So I was on my way home when the dog attacked me.”
She says there’s “no way in hell” she’s going out on the streets again on her scooter.
Roaming dogs in Wairoa were out of control, she said.
“It’s beyond words that people even have menacing dogs. If it had been a kid that was attacked, they would be dead.”
She said the dog’s owner visited her in hospital.
“I wasn’t going to see him, but then I thought it would be a good idea for him to see what his dog had done. But typical of me, I ended up feeling sorry for him.”
Carol said she was unsure what the skin grafts will involve or how long she will be in hospital.
Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said the council had “zero tolerance” for dogs that attack.
“All dog owners need to be responsible for looking after their dogs to prevent random attacks like this, which can be life-changing for the victims, their families and those involved,” Little said.
“We need our streets to be safe for everyone.
“We also need to remember that while it is dogs that attack, it is the owner’s responsibility to ensure their dogs are secured and kept under control at all times.
“You know if you have a vicious dog. Why do you keep it?”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.