
'God help me, please': Woman speaks out after off-leash dogs attack her, police search for owner
CBC
A Toronto woman says she is grateful to be alive after she was attacked by two unleashed dogs in Etobicoke on Wednesday evening.
Anita Browne, 54, said she was bitten on her face and her arm as she stood waiting for a TTC bus in the area of Martin Grove Road and John Garland Boulevard before 8:40 p.m. Her right arm was broken in the attack.
"I have to say, thank God I'm still alive," Browne told CBC Toronto on Friday.
Browne was left with 12 stitches to her face, numerous stitches to her upper right arm, where she says one dog left a hole, and her lower right arm is now in a cast. She was hospitalized overnight on Wednesday.
There was no owner nearby when the attack happened, she said.
In a news release on Friday, police said Brown suffered serious, life-altering but non-life threatening injuries. Police said they are seeking the dogs and their owner out of concern for public safety.
Browne said she had just gone to the store and was waiting for a bus, when she heard something behind her. She turned around and saw the dogs loose.
"I'm like, 'OK, what's going on here, where are the owners?'" she said.
One dog went out into the street then came back on the sidewalk, she said. Then, she found herself between the dogs. They began to growl and Brown says she tried to swing her shopping cart at the dogs to protect herself. Both came at her, one biting her head, with the other grabbing her arm, she said.
She stumbled to the ground, where she says one of the dogs jumped on her. She tried to cover herself with her jacket and one dog continued to pull her hair as she screamed.
A woman passing by in a van stopped nearby and asked Browne if she could get up off the ground and make her way to the vehicle.
Browne said she got onto her knees, gathered some strength and told herself: "God help me, please."
"Be strong," the woman told her.
Both dogs continued to attack her as she staggered over to the vehicle, she said.