Pit bull chews off owner's arm, hand

The house at 77 Range Road in Wilton, Conn., on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, where a pit bull attacked his owner, Anne Murray, 65, on Monday. Photo: Lindsay Perry 

WILTON, CONNECTICUT -- In a scene out of a horror movie, a pit bull -- apparently without provocation -- attacked its owner, tearing out one of her arms and ripping off her other hand.

The victim, Anne Murray, 56, was recovering at Norwalk Hospital, her son Matthew Murray said Tuesday.

"She's better -- she's awake now," he said. "I don't really know what happened. I just want to stay with her and get her to a full recovery."

The attack at the Murrays' 77 Range Road home happened about 11:30 a.m. Monday. Police Lt. Donald Wakeman said one passing motorist, and then another, stopped because the dog had wandered into the road.

"The first motorist found the dog to be somewhat aggressive, so she retreated to her car," Wakeman said. "And then one of the two motorists heard someone calling for help, so she called 911."

He said the dog in the street was the one that attacked Murray, who was found underneath a vehicle in her driveway, trying to fend off the animal, said Wakeman, the Wilton Police Department spokesman.

The first arriving officer, Capt. John Lynch, determined that the dog was an immediate threat to the victim and others nearby, so he shot and killed the dog, Wakeman said. The pit bull's remains will be tested for rabies at a state laboratory, officials said.

In additional to the loss of a limb and another hand, Murray had bite wounds all over her body, Wakeman said. She was brought by ambulance to Norwalk Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.

"She lost all of her left arm and a portion of her right arm," he said.

Monday's mauling recalls the 2009 chimpanzee attack on Charla Nash, of Stamford. In that incident she was blinded and horribly mutilated; she later received a face transplant.

But the big difference between that case and Monday's dog attack is that chimpanzees, cute as they may be when they're infants, grow up to be wild animals -- muscular, temperamental and unpredictable ones at that.

Dogs, conversely, have been domesticated for tens of thousands of years, making Monday's attack all the more terrifying.

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