Ann Dunn: Dogs mauled elderly woman to death 'as she got ready to collect her grandson from school'
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND: The elderly woman who was mauled to death by a pack of American bulldogs was reportedly getting ready to pick her grandson up from school when she was attacked.
65-year-old Ann Dunn was found dead at her home in the Vauxhall area of Liverpool after the school alerted her family that her grandson had not been picked up. Neighbors reported hearing a woman's screams at around 4 pm on Monday, October 3. The grandmother is the ninth person in the UK to be mauled to death this year. Merseyside Police confirmed in a statement that the five bulldogs, found inside the property on St Brigids Crescent, were seized by officers and euthanized. They also revealed that a 31-year-old man arrested on suspicion of owning a dog dangerously out of control in connection with the incident had been released on conditional bail.
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Neighbors said the family had been breeding dogs "for years" -- including XL Bullys. One nearby resident remembered how the grandmother of one and mother-of-two never failed to say "hello" whenever they met. “She was lovely, really funny, such a happy girl," they told the Daily Mirror of Ann on condition of anonymity. “She had not long ago been on holiday with her daughter. She was meant to be picking up her grandson from school and it was only when the school got in touch with his mum to say (he) was still there and no one had come for him that they realized something was wrong. She had gone in to put her bags down and the dogs attacked her, she tried to shut the door but she fell." The neighbor added, "When I found out I was so upset. I couldn’t sleep that night, I was laid awake thinking about what state she must have been in when they found her. It’s awful and so sad. I used to see her walking to work, no matter the weather, come rain or shine she’d always walk down and never missed a day.”
Another neighbor said, "The first thing I saw was a load of people gathered at the end of the crescent talking to each other on the phone. Then all the police turned up with the fire engines. When I found out it was Ann who had been attacked I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it.” She said she'd lived in the neighborhood for 38 years and had started to see an increasing number of "vicious and nasty looking dogs."
One young woman who lives close by also admitted seeing an unusual uptick in the number of Bully type breeds in the area in the last three years. “There’s a lot of breeders in the area, it’s very common, everyone is breeding dogs now," she said. “Even in the last three years or so there’s been a big increase in the number of Bully type dogs in the area and they are scary to be fair. You just know they shouldn’t be bred in back gardens, even on Instagram there are loads of kennels popping up.”
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Ann worked as a cleaner at the Scotland Road campus of Liverpool John Moores University, which also paid tribute. “The university community is absolutely shocked and devastated by this tragic loss and to lose Ann in this way is just heart-breaking," a spokesman said in a statement. "Ann was hard-working and dedicated and had so many friends across the organization. It’s just awful and she will be terribly missed. Our thoughts at this time are with her family and loved ones.”