HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A woman who uses a wheelchair is frightened to leave her home because of ferocious dogs that she has encountered twice in two weeks.
Lisa Toliver, a double-amputee, lives on Clover Street in Sunnyside, where she uses a wheelchair to get around.
On Nov. 18, her service dog, Ali, went outside to use the bathroom, and Toliver heard her whining. When she went outside to see what was happening, she said she found two dogs attacking Ali in her backyard.
Toliver screamed for help, and her neighbor stepped in.
“The only thing I could do was try to get a broom,” Toliver said. “I was on the ground. I wasn't thinking. All I was thinking about was this was my baby. I had to save her.”
Ali was bitten more than 15 times and had to get stitches all around her neck.
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“That black and white dog – when he came up to me and looked me dead in the eyes, like ‘I'ma get you next. I'ma get you,'” Toliver explained. “The only thing I can think is, ‘You better get away from me.' What else can I do? I have no legs. No defense. Nothing at all.”
Since then, she has resorted to carrying a machete around for protection. Toliver said she is frightened to take her trash to the curb, and her friends will not visit her because they are also scared.
On Dec. 1, Toliver said she was sitting just outside her front door, and the dogs entered her property again. She said she raised her electric wheelchair up as much as possible and stood up in it as she wielded the machete at the dogs.
“If they did this to (Ali), just imagine what they would do to me,” Toliver said.
Surveillance video from Toliver's driveway shows the dogs leaving and following a passing car. Toliver believes their owner drove the car.
She is frightened for her safety, especially because she cannot defend herself.
Following both attacks, Toliver filed reports with the Houston Police Department. She said the police told her they couldn't do much to help her.
“They going to kill,” Toliver said. “If they don't, they coming back for me because they know my scent. Once a dog knows a scent, he's coming back, and he's coming back to attack.”
HPD told ABC13 that its animal cruelty investigators planned to visit Toliver on Wednesday.
BARC sent a member of their animal enforcement team to Toliver's home Tuesday night.
“I'm reaching out for help because I need help,” Toliver said.
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