Dog Bite Case in Palm Beach, Florida Causes Permanent Injuries
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states that 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year. Almost one in five of those bitten (885,000) require medical attention for dog bite related injuries. Sadly, most of the victims who receive medical attention are children, and half of them are bitten in the face.
The victim in this case was a mother and grandmother who had worked for an elderly socialite in Palm Beach, Florida as a housekeeper and companion for more than thirty years. Her employer was 84 years old and had lost her husband twelve years earlier. At the time of this incident, the victim’s employer owned a dog, a Jack Russell Terrier named Target that she had adopted shortly after her husband had passed away, and understandably this lady had formed quite an attachment to her little dog.
There were other employees in the house and it was mutually agreed that whoever had time would walk Target. No one person was assigned this task. Usually they would just walk him to the end of the street, then turn around and come back. Sometimes they would just walk him on the owner’s property, but always on a leash. Everyone agreed that this little dog had never gotten off of the property without a leash and he had never attempted to bite anyone or go after any other dog.
On the day of this particular incident, no one else was at home so our victim in this dog bite case offered to walk Target. They were just going to the end of the street and back.
They walked down the middle of the road because there was no sidewalk there and no traffic to speak of. All of a sudden this huge black Doberman came bounding out of one of the neighbor’s yards, came up behind the victim and grabbed her right elbow with his teeth and clamped down. He was pulling and tugging at her and when she tried to push him away, he wouldn’t let go. Finally he let go of her arm and grabbed her right wrist. The victim was screaming the entire time but no one came to her rescue.
Next the dog came in front of the victim growling and bearing his teeth and lunging at her. She said all she could think of was to keep him away from her face, so she began kicking at him and at that point he grabbed her left foot and kept biting her left foot. It seemed like an eternity to her, as he kept biting her and she kept screaming, but on one came.
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