GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A 59-year-old woman was injured and one of her two small dogs was killed late Monday morning when they were attacked by two other dogs in a Gainesville neighborhood, authorities said.
The Gainesville Police Department said officers responded just before 11:45 a.m. to a call about a woman who was screaming as she was being mauled by dogs on Northwest 21st Drive, near the intersection of Northwest 39th Avenue and Northwest 13th Street -- about 4 miles north of the University of Florida campus.
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Police said they found a woman holding one of the dogs when they arrived. Officers said she then let go of the dog, which ran back through a hole in a fence around its yard along Northwest 22nd Drive from where it had originally escaped.
Investigators said they learned the woman was walking her two small dogs when she heard the sound of other dogs growling behind her, turned around and saw two dogs, which were described by police as pit bulls, trying to attack her dogs.
Police said the woman quickly picked up her dogs and that's when both pit bulls began to maul her, biting the woman all over her body. During the attack, according to police, one of the woman's dogs fell to the ground and was mauled to death by the pit bulls.
The woman suffered severe injuries to her arm, along with multiple puncture wounds to her head and body, police said. She was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville to be treated for her injuries, which police said were non-life-threatening.
Police said animal control took custody of both dogs and the woman's dog that died.
According to a police report, the owner of the dogs that were taken into custody was issued a citation.