6 Pit Bulls Kill Pet Dog, Critically Injure Owner Who Tried Helping

A Taunton, Massachusetts, woman was recovering after she was attacked by six pit bulls while trying to save her dog from one of them.

A police officer was on routine patrol in the area Wednesday night when he saw 51-year-old Rochelle Silva running in the middle of the road. He then noticed six pit bulls following her. The officer then pulled over and got out of his cruiser to assist the victim. When he approached Silva, some of the pit bulls turned toward him as though to attack him. As the pit bulls were next to and on top of the victim, the officer was unable to shoot them. He then got back to his cruiser and activated his siren in order to distract the canines.

While the dogs were distracted, the officer and another passerby managed to get Silva into the police cruiser. She was taken to a nearby hospital with critical injuries. The passerby was attacked in the process and suffered minor injuries to his leg. The good Samaritan then drove himself to a nearby hospital for treatment. Meanwhile, the owner of the dogs came outside and took them back into the house. The victim’s dog, however, died in the attack.

Recalling the incident, Silva said, she was walking her dog, Ace, when one of the pit bulls escaped from a house and started attacking her pet. When she tried to rescue her dog, five other pit bulls got out and attacked her.

"They weren't able to get at Ace. They kept biting at me to get at Ace,” she said, adding that she ran across the street to put her pet over a fence so the pit bulls could not reach it.

"I don't know how I lost Ace. I don't know how I lost Ace in my arms,” she said, CBS-affiliated television station WIFR reported.

“All six were on me. If there were six of them, then all six were on me. All six of them were biting at me. Bites all over my body. I’ve got a bite on my face. I’ve got bites on my arms. I’ve got a big chunk out of my right leg, behind my knee cap, that went right to the bone,” she said, adding, "I thought I was going to die. The chunks that were coming out of my body, I could feel them.”

Police said the pit bulls might have escaped after the owner left the front door open and they “immediately began attacking the woman,” the Taunton Daily Gazette reported.

Stefanie Murphy, Silva’s neighbor, said she heard “an unbelievable screams” and saw Silva’s dog being attacked.

“I saw something flying, and it flew into my yard. I think it was dead by the time it landed. I thought it was a cell phone wallet getting thrown and didn’t even know it was a dog,” she said.

Manny Massa, Taunton’s animal control officer, said the pit bulls were now caged and quarantined and at risk of being put down. Massa added that the owner of the dogs will have to pay heavy fines.