Two dogs that escaped from a Milwaukee home ran into a neighbor’s house, attacked a pregnant woman and her teenage daughter, then crossed the street and fatally injured another family’s small dog, according to interviews and video obtained by FOX6.
The attack happened Sept. 23 near North 44th Street and West Hampton Avenue after the dogs got loose from a nearby residence. Doorbell footage captured screams as the animals chased a 15-year-old girl who had stepped outside to retrieve a package.
Her mother, Isabella Rush, was nine months pregnant when she tried to pull the dogs away from her daughter. Rush suffered bite wounds to her hand and stomach, while her daughter was bitten on the leg.
The dogs were eventually taken into custody and remain at the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission under a Department of Neighborhood Services hold. The city has not publicly announced a final determination on what will happen to them.
Rush told FOX6 Milwaukee that one dog pulled her down by her hand while the other grabbed her stomach.
Her fiancé came from another room and managed to pull the dogs toward a door. Once outside, however, the animals ran across the street toward another family.
Across The Street
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Gwendolyn Powell said her fiancé tried to keep the dogs away from his family and their small dog, Honey.
One of the dogs bit deeply into the man’s arm. Powell told FOX6 the wound went “to the bone.”
The dogs then got hold of Honey, leaving the smaller dog with injuries that proved fatal.
Police were called, and the two dogs were eventually removed from the neighborhood.
What Happens Next
Milwaukee’s Department of Neighborhood Services can designate an animal a “prohibited dangerous animal” under circumstances that include killing a domestic pet without provocation while off its owner’s property or inflicting substantial bodily harm on a person without provocation.
If such an order is issued, Milwaukee requires the animal to be removed from the city within seven days or destroyed. An owner can appeal the order in writing within 72 hours.
The MADACC director told FOX6 she suspected the two dogs involved in the Sept. 23 attack would ultimately receive that designation. The city had not publicly confirmed that determination as of Sept. 29.
Their current placement at MADACC also tracks with Milwaukee’s normal response to serious animal bites. The city’s animal-bite procedures call for dogs that bite people to be quarantined for observation. Animals found loose when the bite occurs can be taken to MADACC rather than quarantined at their owner’s home.
Milwaukee Police procedures likewise require officers to document animal bites and send the information to the Department of Neighborhood Services. Dogs or cats that break a person’s skin can be seized for rabies observation and taken to MADACC.
For Rush, the immediate outcome was more personal.
“We could’ve lost our life,” she told FOX6.