Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mauled to death by a rescue dog Woman, 25, savaged by her own pet
A WOMAN mauled to death by a dog had rescued it as a stray, a heartbroken aunt has revealed.
Neighbours reported hearing barking and screaming before a relative discovered the 25-year-old savaged in a house. Police found her dead at the scene. The woman’s aunt posted a message on Facebook saying that her niece had taken in the dog – described as a Staffiecross by police – after her last pet died.
She wrote: “Her previous dog... died of cancer so she rescued this dog after finding it in a garden where it had been on and off for four years.
“Sometimes dogs are rescued with all good intentions but their past can make
them tragically unpredictable.” Her uncle said yesterday: “It’s crazy what’s happened. I don’t know if it’s my place to say anything else.”
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services in the Kitts Green area of Birmingham just after 2pm on Friday.
A neighbour said the dog “looked more like a bull mastiff ” than a Staffie.
She said: “I saw the dog being taken away and it looked fine. I’d never seen it before and I heard from a neighbour it was only walked at certain times. She used to pull her own dog away from it because she thought it was violent.”
Retired cleaner Eric Kirton, 72, said: “My daughter phoned and said a young lady had been bitten by a dog.
“She heard there that the woman was in bed when the dog chewed her arm off.”
Officers said no one else was in the property at the time and the dog was handed to police to be put down.
West Midlands Police said: “The death is being treated as a tragic incident, with no suspicious circumstances. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”