A childcare worker has been left traumatised after being bitten more than 30 times by two vicious dogs who mauled her in her own backyard.
But just moments before Ashley Harraghy, 20, was savagely attacked at her Melbourne home the dog lover took to social media app Snapchat to film herself patting the ‘friendly’ staffy.
Ashley said she went outside to play with the dogs, bending down to pat one and writing: ‘these two random dogs just appeared in my backyard!’
‘I went to play with them, and they were all fine’ she told 9 News about the ordeal that occurred at her home in Cranbourne North, in Melbourne‘s south-east, about 2.15pm on June 17.
A childcare worker (right) has been left traumatised after being bitten more than 30 times by two vicious dogs who mauled her in her own backyard
Just moments before Ashley Harraghy, 20, was savagely attacked at her Melbourne home the dog lover took to social media app Snapchat to film herself patting the ‘friendly’ staffy
When she noticed a man standing nearby who she believed to be the owner, Ashley said the dogs dramatically changed their temperament, turning from friendly to fearsome in an instant.
She needed 60 stitches for gruesome wounds covering her whole body, including a chunk of flesh ripped from her arm and bite marks just centimetres from her neck.
Her fiance Phil Juggins scared off one of the dogs – possibly a staffy-ridgeback cross – after hearing Ms Harraghy’s screams, and believes she is lucky to be alive.
The ‘scary’ ordeal has left Ms Harraghy traumatised, unable to sleep due to horrifying flashbacks and terrified of her own pet pooches, The Cranbourne Leader reported.
They circled the young woman before knocking her to the ground and brutally biting her, tearing her clothes and ripping her hair out.
Such was the intensity of the ferocious attack Ms Harraghy was unable to get up or fight back.
‘The dogs were attacking me, I was trying to stop it but in the end I couldn’t so I ended up just lying there,’ she said.
A whole chunk of flesh was torn from her right arm, and she could have died if the dogs had managed to do the same to her throat.
Mr Juggins said if the beasts had gotten to her neck he would have been unable to save her, despite rushing to her side as soon as he saw the frenzied attack.
‘I could have walked out to my girlfriend dead because you can see how close it got to her neck,’ he said.
Ms Harraghy was released from Dandenong Hospital last week after having surgery on the bite mark to her arm, and is now undergoing trauma counselling.
The dogs which attacked her have been seized by Casey Council, and the couple are calling for them to be destroyed.
Casey Council said the dogs are being held by the council and their registration and microchipping are being examined as part of an investigation.
Ms Harraghy (pictured) needed 60 stitches for gruesome wounds covering her whole body, including a chunk of flesh ripped from her arm and bite marks just centimetres from her neck