Dulac woman: Pit bull bit arm, legs, throat, chest

HOUMA, La. (AP) — A 54-year-old Dulac woman says her pit bull savaged her for 45 minutes, and had previously attacked other family members.
"The doctor said he couldn't even count the bites on me," Kathleen Shaffer told The Courier (http://bit.ly/1o0iOvM) Tuesday.
She was interviewed at Terrebonne General Medical Center, where she's being treated for bites to her left arm, legs, chest and throat. She said she's afraid she'll never walk again.
The pit bull was being held at the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter to screen him for rabies, and will then be killed, shelter manager Valerie Robinson said.
Shaffer said she was afraid of the 70-pound dog after Bubba attacked other family members, including two children. "But my husband loves him so we kept him," she said.
The couple did not report the earlier attacks, she said, and Bubba attacked her about 5 a.m. Sunday, as she was picking up trash.
"He took my pants completely off and was gnawing down my legs," she said. "I tried to keep his mouth open and away from me, but he just kept biting me," she said.
She managed to get to a garden hose.
"When I sprayed him in the face he just started looking around to start coming at me from the other direction," she said.
Staying still just let him keep biting. So she tried another tack.
"I said 'Get 'em boy!' and pointed under the trailer. Once he was under my trailer, I got inside," she said.
She then used roast beef to lure the dog into the trailer, slammed the door behind him and made her way to her neighbor's house.
Shaffer said her family took Bubba in eight to 10 years ago. He became aggressive in the past couple of years, she said.
He "changed to another dog," she said.
Terrebonne and Lafourche parish councils have both discussed stricter measures against vicious dogs in recent months after a 4-year-old Houma girl was killed in March in what police say was an unprovoked attack by her mother's pit bull mix inside their apartment.
Earlier this month, the Terrebonne Parish Council passed an ordinance that increased penalties for owners of dangerous and vicious dogs.
The Lafourche Parish Council is expected to consider a stricter dog ordinance Aug. 12, after a July 6 pit bull attack on a Chackbay resident.