Jacquelyn Clark shows her bandaged hands after she was attacked trying to protect her dog Molly. Picture: Meagan Rogers.
By Sarah Schwager
A LYNBROOK woman is urging owners of potentially dangerous dogs to keep them on a leash after she was attacked trying to protect her puppy.
Jacquelyn Clark was recently walking her three-month-old Labrador cross retriever Molly near the cricket oval at the Banjo Patterson Reserve when a Staffordshire terrier ran towards them, grabbing her dog by the throat.
In a panic, Mrs Clark grabbed the dog and Molly ran off into the bushes but the dog chased her.
Mrs Clark ran after them and as the dog had its jaws around her puppy’s leg, she slipped the choker chain off her dog’s neck and managed to get it on the other dog and tie it up to a tree.
“I had blood pouring down my hands. But I wasn’t even thinking of myself. I thought ‘I am not letting you kill my puppy’,” Mrs Clark said.
In shock at what had happened, she called her father, husband and brother, who then called the police and ambulance, and she was rushed to the Dandenong Hospital where she underwent surgery on her hands.
Mrs Clark spent four days in hospital.
“I just want people to be aware. Dogs like that should be on leads,” she said.
“Now I have multiple puncture wounds on my hands. My husband has to have time off.
“I’m a carer and I can’t even care for myself. I can’t shower myself. The nurses had to shower me.
“It’s taken away my dignity. I can’t put my seatbelt on, or cut my own food. I just want people to know that there are people out there that are careless.”
Molly had to go to the vet after receiving puncture wounds.
“She wasn’t good, but she survived,” Mrs Clark said.
“She’s definitely not the same dog. Still, she came off better than me.”
Mrs Clark said she was just thankful that the incident, which occurred about 2.30pm on Thursday 22 Novemeber, did not happen later in the day.
“It is just so lucky because the kids come out of school at about 3.30pm,” she said.
“It could have been a lot worse if it had been a kid walking by.”
Mrs Clark urged dog owners to be cautious around parks where dogs were let off their leads.
“You just never know what some dogs are capable of,” she said. “I was lucky it was not two dogs that were involved.
“I would’ve had no control, and who knows what would have happened to my dog.”
