Reading Woman Attacked by Fiancée's Two Aggressive Dogs
Owner Shoots Own DogsReading, PA - Brett Correll shot his two large German shepherd and American bulldog-mixes after they attacked his 22-year old fiancée, Julythza Rivera. At the time of the attack, Correll was tending to his 1-year old son. Upon hearing her screams, Correll had to break down a kitchen door that was locked from the outside to get to where the dogs were mauling the young woman.
Rivera said the dogs knocked her down and bit her repeatedly, but that she managed to scramble into the house and a bathroom near the kitchen to try to escape. When Correll broke down the door separating the kitchen and bathroom from the rest of the house, he found Rivera in the tub. Their dogs, Bishop and Chopper (reportedly each 130-pounds) were on top of her attacking.
"I grabbed the one dog by his head and threw him out into the backyard and then I pulled the other one off of her," Correll said. Without pausing, he got a handgun and fired once at each dog in the backyard. "It all happened in a minute," Correll recalled. "I didn't want them to attack me or my family again. It was a sad story. We loved those dogs. I still can't believe it happened..."
Correll drove Rivera to Reading Hospital, where she was treated for bite and scratch wounds. Police and the Animal Rescue League responded to the house as the couple returned from the hospital. One of the dogs was already dead, but the other had to be euthanized. No one knows for certain what sparked the attack. Police think they may have been agitated by neighbors.
Correll said the couple kept the dogs for security and had raised them from birth. "They were aggressive dogs, but we wanted them that way because we live in a drug-infested neighborhood. Now we only have a chihuahua left." He still has a fiancée and child left too. The family is wildly lucky that their "professed" aggressive dogs did not hurt a family member more,
or worse, a visiting friend.
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Woman Attacked By Own Dogs, Officer Shot Saving Her07/31/08:
Boyfriend's Pit Bull Attacks Woman in Blanchard
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