Pat’s too scared to walk alone in Somerton

TWO weeks after being badly bitten by a dog in Somerton, Pat Coleman is still too scared to walk alone.

The 79-year-old Somerton woman still bears extensive bruising and puncture marks on both of her legs but the scars are more than physical.

Although police have now told her the dog has since been put down, Mrs Coleman said the two week wait to find out the dog’s fate was too long.

“I have not heard a thing up until today,” Mrs Coleman said yesterday.

“It was an awful shock when it happened. It’s taken a lot of confidence out of me.”

Out for her daily afternoon walk on Tuesday, September 25, she says she was walking up Joshua St when a pack of five dogs came out from behind a house. 

“The two labradors were barking and carrying on, one had its teeth out, bristles up and it just went for me,” Mrs Coleman said.

The elderly woman said she was bitten twice, once on her left thigh and also behind the knee on her right leg, leaving her bleeding and in pain.

“I was yelling at them to get out, but the dog didn’t stop,” Mrs Coleman said.

The dogs were eventually called off by a man who emerged from the house but Mrs Coleman said she was in shock at the amount of blood she lost.

“They were clearly very shaken about it all, the woman took me home and apologised and also rang me the next morning to see how I was.”

Mrs Coleman’s daughter, Debbie Warwick, who was visiting, took her mother to hospital where she received a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

“They told me it was a bad bite and very close to an artery,” Mrs Coleman said.

Her family persuaded her to make a report to police and also a complaint to Tamworth Regional Council. She did that the next day.

Senior Constable Belson from Barraba police said action had been taken and a $550 fine issued to the dog owners.

“According to the owners the dog has been put down,” Senior Constable Belson said.

Mrs Coleman said she would have appreciated a phone call to let her know what happened – for her own safety and for everyone else’s.

Mrs Coleman said her nine-year-old granddaughter Katie had also been bitten by a dog two months earlier along the same stretch of road while riding her bike – but the family didn’t make a complaint then. 

Mrs Coleman, who is also caring for her sick husband, said she was now too scared to walk around the back roads of Somerton alone.

“I cried about it later, it’s taken it right out of me. I’ve had dogs all my life but I’m scared of them all now.”

“If you’re going to have animals you have to take responsibility for them.”