When Janny Bird intervened in a dog attack in March 2017, she took control of a situation that could have turned out much worse.
Caroline Kennard and a friend were walking their leashed dogs when the incident took place. They noticed two loose dogs coming up the street. One of them approached and attacked Kennard’s dog, clenching its teeth on her dog’s hind legs. After a struggle, Kennard said, she was able to throw her pet over a hedge. Moments later, Kennard’s friend tried to protect her own small dog, holding it in her arms, as the much larger dog attacked.
Janny Bird, who was at home nearby, heard screaming. She grabbed a leash hanging by the door
and ran towards the noise.
“I could tell what was going on,” said Bird, who is a dog trainer and a medical exercise specialist.
She found the large dog on top of the woman, its jaws clenched on her arm and shaking her.
Bird managed to restrain the attacking dog, which weighed perhaps 70-80 pounds, by wrapping the leash around its waist, lifting it off the ground and pulling it away from the woman. The dog turned and tried to attack Bird, but she was able to keep it at a distance and suspended from the ground.
Bird told the other women to get away from the scene, and then alerted her neighbour, an off-duty policeman who happened to appear nearby. Police, ambulance and animal control soon arrived. “Without the quick, brave, smart action of Janny Bird, a terrible situation would have turned tragic,” Kennard said.
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