A woman whose right hand was ripped off by a dog in a savage attack has told of the horrifying moment she looked down and saw the severed body party in a pool of blood.
Sue Scarlett, 64, was attacked by the 14st (90kg or 200lb) cross breed while cleaning its kennel last October.
The male rescue dog had locked its teeth around her right arm in an attack “seemed to last for hours”, the care home nurse has said.
Her husband and a friend tried to pull the dog off her but it refused to let go and she feared it would kill her as she held a kennel gate against it. After the dog finally did let go, the grandmother knew she was in “big trouble”, so she told her husband and friend what to do to stem the flow of blood.
Sue, who described the dog having a grey and black brindle coat with paws the size of her hand, said: “I shouted to him to let go but he just held on tighter. “After what seemed like hours my husband heard me and tried to pull the dog away but was unable to do so.
“I remember thinking that I would have a few broken bones when he finished. “But at that time I looked down and saw my right hand lying on the concrete in a pool of blood.”
The dogs slept in the kennels and were able to have water in the run before running outside into a surrounding field to play. Sue let the dog out of its kennel so she could clean the room and change the water in the run.
But the dog put his head partially into the run of out of the kennel and grabbed her right arm. Sue, a nurse at Ashlynn Grange care home, in Peterborough, Cambs., shouted at the dog to let go but he continued to “gnaw” at her arm.
She said she had to go on her knees to push the kennel gate against him because she “knew that if he got into the kennel he would kill” her.
Sue screamed for her husband, who was also helping to look after the other dogs, to call for an ambulance and police as her friend tried to get the dog off her arm.