Published: October 24, 2007 12:47 am      

Elderly woman injured in pit bull attack

GREENVILLE — An elderly Greenville woman was injured this past weekend during a reported attack by a pit bull dog.

Ruth Hall, 81, received a wound to one of her hands as she tried to rescue one of her two dachshunds from a neighbor’s pit bull early Saturday morning. The attacking dog was later killed as police officers attempted to capture it.

“We are all paranoid right now, because he has one pit bull left,” Hall, a retired school teacher, said of her neighbor’s dogs.

Her brother, David Garner, was a witness and said it was not the first such attack by the pit bulls.

“Many times, several times,” Garner said. “They’ve showed up together in her yard before. The whole neighborhood ... is being terrorized by those dogs.”

Local animal control authorities, however, apparently had no record of prior incidents when contacted this week.

According to a report from the Greenville Police Department, the incident occurred at around 5:30 a.m. Saturday at Hall’s home in the 3200 block of Bonham Street. The pit bull entered Hall’s back yard and attacked one of the dachshunds.

“He just tore the dachshund’s throat out,” Garner said,

Hall attempted to intervene and drag her dog through the home’s pet door, although the dachshund bit her on one hand in the process.

Garner grabbed a handgun and fired into the ground three times, scaring the pit bull away.

According to the report, officers arrived on the scene and attempted to capture the dog, notifying the Animal Control department. But before an Animal Control officer arrived, the pit bull was reportedly struck by a passing vehicle and was killed.

Garner said the neighbor has kept the remaining and larger pit bull chained in the back yard of his residence.

“In the meantime, I’m not letting the dog I have left out of my sight,” Hall said.

Garner said his sister is still in shock over the attack.

“She’s afraid to even go outside and work in her garden,” Garner said. “She looked at those dachshunds as her children. They’re all she has left here.”

Calls to the Animal Control division were referred to City of Greenville Consumer Relations Manager Lori Philyaw, who confirmed the details of the police report, but said there was no reference to any prior incidents involving the pit bulls.

“Nothing they sent me shows that,” Philyaw said. “I just have this one offense listed.”