Townsville woman holds ‘no ill feelings’ towards pet dog that tore her arm off in horrific attack

A Queensland woman has recalled the sickening moment her own dog tore her arm off in shocking attack earlier this month.

Annmarie Walters, 34, was attacked by seven-year-old dog Buddy — a ridgeback cross staffy and dingo mix — who reacted when a neighbour kicked on the front door of her home in Garbutt, Townsville, on October 11.

Walters said Buddy had just weeks earlier been hit with a baseball bat and stabbed when thieves smashed in the front door and stole items from the home before fleeing.

Walters fears her dog was traumatised, and possibly brain damaged, in that “sick” attack, and was not acting like his normal self when he sensed a new threat.

“My dog was defending my yard, my house, as his job is I guess,” Walters told 7NEWS on Wednesday.

“He went to have a go at my neighbour because we had a disagreement.”

Walters grabbed hold of Buddy to stop him getting out the front door, which was still broken from the robbery several weeks earlier.

She said Buddy had been so badly injured in that earlier incident she didn’t know how he was still alive.

“Something happened to him after that,” she said.

Walters said once she got hold of Buddy, he turned and grabbed her right arm in his mouth.

She said she managed to stay calm as she began backing away towards the garden, stepping outside and closing the back door as much as she could to out a barrier between her and Buddy who was still latched onto her arm.

She then crouched down and spoke calmly to try to get Buddy to let go.

“He had his eyes shut the whole time, I don’t think he knew it was me,” she said.

As Walters slowly got Buddy to relax and begin to let go of her arm, a well-meaning neighbour threw a pair of scissors over the fence in a bid to distract Buddy.

However, they landed close to her and the noise caused Buddy to become “psychotic”, Walters said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, he wasn’t the same dog anymore,” she said.

Buddy had latched on again and began pulling, ripping her arm off just below the elbow.

“I was a little bit relieved because the pain was pretty bad,” Walters said.

“There was a lot of blood, I sat there and called triple zero.”

Walters knew she was in trouble when emergency operators asked her to repeat her address and she began telling them the wrong numbers.

“I felt extremely short of breath,” she said.

“I thought I was going to die alone.”

Police were first on scene and applied a life-saving tourniquet before paramedics arrived.

Walters was then rushed to hospital, where she was told she died twice during surgery and needed four blood transfusions.

She had hoped doctors could re-attach her arm but it was unable to be saved.

Police had waited until Walters was taken to hospital before going inside and euthanising Buddy, who was found hiding in her bedroom.

“I have no ill feelings towards my dog, I love my dog, I love him now,” she said.

“I don’t feel ill will towards the police, but I wish there had been a better outcome.”