A woman has come to the defence of her dogs after they were accused of two horrifying attacks on locals within 24 hours.
The Melbourne dog owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said on Sunday that she would have locked up her pets if she was told about the first incident.
Victoria Police said a 71-year-old woman was left bleeding after being knocked to the ground and bitten on her face, legs and back in Sunbury on Thursday.
Two men managed to pull the dogs off the elderly woman, but were also injured in the attack.
The dogs were seen unaccompanied the next day before setting upon a new mum pushing a pram with her baby as she walked to school to pick up her older child.
Neighbours were alerted to the incident after hearing the mother’s screams, only to find her ‘bleeding from the head, the ears, the nose’.
Both women were taken to hospital where they underwent surgery for their injuries.
Among those who came to the mother’s aid was the dogs’ owner who said she was ‘humiliated’ and ‘sorry’ for what her pets had done.
A Melbourne dog owner (pictured) said she should have been told about her pets attacking an elderly woman so she could lock them up before they mauled a mother the next day
A number of locals have said they had complained about the dogs (pictured) to the local Hume City Council before they left both women needing surgery for their injuries
However, the owner said she should have been told about the initial mauling because she ‘would have kept them inside’.
She told 7News that she had ‘put my body over the woman’ to try and stop the attack and was thankful they didn’t turn their attention to the infant.
‘It’s just been heartbreaking for me and I just pray for her,’ she said.
‘I am just so, so happy that the baby was okay… The dogs didn’t go near the baby, thank God.’
She also expressed her apologies to the local council and community over the incidents, adding that she loved her dogs that ‘were my family’.
But neighbours said what happened was inevitable as the dogs constantly escaped from their backyard and had been terrorising them for months.
‘They’ve been reported many times,’ Mr Jackson said. ‘They scare the hell out of you.’
At least five neighbours said they had complained to the Hume City Council about these dogs, but nothing was ever done.
On one occasion, a neighbour was told they would have to restrain the dogs themselves before the rangers would come out to investigate.
The dogs were seen unaccompanied the next day before setting upon a new mum pushing a pram with her baby to pick up an older child from school
Another local, Anna Jackson, said the incidents on Thursday and Friday were not the first time the dogs had bitten someone.
‘About two or three months ago … the dogs were out and Christopher’s trying to push him away and the dog’s just come at him and bit him on the left leg,’ she said.
When the Hume City Council was asked why the dogs weren’t taken from the property after the first attack, a councillor said there was a ‘process’ to go through.
‘You can’t just go onto a property and take a dog. That’s the problem, even if it does attack you. You’ve got to go through a process,’ Councillor Jack Medcraft said.
The dogs were taken away on Saturday and euthanised.
‘I just really pray for the woman and I hope that she can forgive me,’ the dogs’ owner said.
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