ST. FRANCIS COUNTY, AR — A 27-year-old Arkansas woman had so many dog bites after a vicious attack that the doctor stopped counting at 200, her mother said. The woman was dragged away and attacked by a pack of dogs while she was walking home Friday, according to news reports.
The victim, who wasn’t identified in news reports, said one dog attacked first, biting her on the arm, and “then they just all flocked,” according to a report by news station WREG. The pack of 10 dogs dragged her behind a mobile home, ripping off some of her clothes in the attack.
There was no one else in the area to stop the dogs from tearing into her flesh, she said.
“I think I made it up one or two more times to get to my phone, and they kept dragging me back behind the trailer so they could eat me,” she told WREG. “I mean, they were literally eating me alive.”
A woman driving by heard her screams just in time and was able to scare the dogs away, the station said.
Dogs aren’t required to be on leashes in St. Francis County, located in east central Arkansas about 60 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee. The county sheriff’s office told WREG its hands are tied due to the lack of an ordinance requiring dogs to be leashed, but the woman can file a civil lawsuit against the owners.
WREG said it contacted the people who own the dogs and they blamed the attack on coyotes, an explanation the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Office doubts.
It’s unclear what breed or type of dogs were involved in the attack, but the American Veterinary Medical Association says any dog can bite.
Each year, about 4.5 million people — most of them children who are more likely than adults to require medical attention — are bitten by dogs, and more than 800,000 of them require medical attention, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most dog bites occur during playful interaction with familiar dogs, the AVMA said.