By Joe Anuta
A Flushing woman who was attacked in her own yard by a dog last week said the uncaring owners just walked away afterward, leaving her bleeding to call the police herself.
The 43-year-old woman, who only wanted to be identified as Debbie for fear the dog owners would return to her home, said doctors had to give her 34 stitches to repair her leg, which was left with some of the tendons exposed.
“It was a nightmare,” the woman said. “I just can’t believe it happened. I see my leg and I just can’t believe it.”
The incident occurred Oct. 30, when the woman was outside her home near 26th Avenue and Francis Lewis Boulevard as she was picking weeds just before 2 p.m., she said.
A man and a woman in their 40s were walking with a bike and two dogs that resembled pit bulls when they sat on a concrete wall in front of Debbie’s house, she said. One of the dogs was black, brown and white and the other, bigger dog was mostly white.
The pair , whom she had never seen before, sat on a broken portion of the wall, and when Debbie asked them to move, one of the two dogs lunged at her.
“It knocked me down, it knocked the owner down,” she said. “This one just jumped and leaped onto me and he must have weighed at least 60 pounds.”
The dogs were on leashes, but when one of them attacked, it pulled the owner off his feet.
After knocking Debbie down and leaving her inner thigh scratched and later bruised, the dog sank its teeth into her leg and would not let go, she said.
Debbie started screaming and telling the owner to pull the dog off of her, and the other owner came over. The dog released its hold on Debbie’s leg, which allowed her to run into the house.
Then the owners of the dogs just walked away.
“As I’m fumbling, calling for 911, they pick up their stuff and just casually blend back into the world like nothing happened,” she said. “What I can’t get out of my head is that they said nothing. They never said, ‘Fido, get off her’ or, ‘Are you OK?’ or, ‘I’m sorry.’ Not one word. It is unbelievable.”
After the woman filled out a police report and had her leg stitched up, she had to get a series of five painful rabies shots. The police filled out an animal bite report form, which was passed onto the city Department of Health. A spokeswoman for the DOH confirmed that the incident took place and that the department is currently investigating it.
But Debbie has been left incapacitated — unable to work at her real estate business, walk or drive.
“You just take for granted that you can get up and walk around and I can’t even put my leg down,” she said. “It’s very scary.”
But the woman said she was lucky she could get away. She imagined the same thing happening to her mother, who lives in the same house, or to the children next door — and the results could have been much worse.
“I want to get the word out that these are dangerous people and dangerous dogs,” she said.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
