Windmill Lane dog attack Sheffield: Woman wounded trying to help before armed police arrived

A woman injured by a 'dangerously out of control dog' has told how it attacked her on a Sheffield street as she tried to help.

She was injured before armed police were sent out, later shooting the animal.

Rachel Hanson, a dog lover, had seen the animal in the middle of Windmill Lane, near Firth Park, and initially tried to help it. But when she walked over to it with a lead, she was attacked and suffered a wound to her hand.

The incident happened on Friday August 11, and she heard car horns at around 10.30pm. When she looked out she saw a dog sitting in the middle of the road, not moving.

She said: "As a dog lover I went and got a lead from my kitchen and started to walk over to the dog which I’ve done a number of times with other stray dogs as, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to the dog. As I got closer the dog did not respond to my calls so I got a little closer and saw the dog was wearing a red collar and lead so at this point I was thinking maybe something had happened to its owner,  or it may have just pulled out of their hand and ran off."

"It happened so quickly.  I put out my hand, not worried as the dog was showing no aggression at all. He just pounced towards me and bit my hand. I pulled away and the dog was then behind me coming back towards me. I was in shock, blood coming out of a cut on my hand."

She ran indoors and found a warning on social media that a dog was loose. Worrying it may bite someone else, she rang 999. Around seven police cars were sent to the scene, and armed response officers .

Rachell wanted to get to hospital to have her wound treated, but says she was told to go back into the house. With the road sealed off, she rang the police again to tell officers she was losing blood and not being allowed out of her house, and a taxi she had called to take her to hospital was not being allowed to reach her. That prompted an officer to escort her to her taxi outside the cordon

Her hand could not be stitched because of infection risks due to the bite, so the wound was cleaned and bandaged. She was put on antibiotics, and is happy with how it is healing.

Dog shot by police in early hours

Rachel heard the dog had been shot while she was in hospital. around 12.37am She said the road was closed off until 3am, with some bullets hitting houses on the street. She said police had not contacted her after the incident, and told of her sympathy for the 'poor dog'. 

"The last thing I said to the police before I was escorted to my taxi was please don’t shoot that poor dog," said Rachel. "I can’t understand why they couldn’t get a dog handler to catch it."

The incident has left her scared of dogs.

"There was a stray Jack Russell the other day which usually I would have tried to lead," she said: "But I couldn't. I walked the other way and put an ad on a lost and found page on Facebook. I’ve not even taken my own dog for a walk since it happened."

Police said the dog, thought to be a Staffordshire bull terrier, had bitten two people, causing injuries needing hospital treatment. They originally planned to capture it, but it became increasingly aggressive, posing a 'significant risk' to the public. Authorisation was given to destroy the dog to prevent any further injuries.