Pet dog mauls wheelchair-bound elderly Florida woman to death, severely injures her son as he tried to save her
An elderly Florida woman had been fatally mauled by her dog that also left her son severely injured after he tried to intervene and save his mother. The 84-year-old woman, Carolyn Varanese, had been pronounced dead on Friday, August 28, by the Margate Fire Rescue. Her dog, identified by cops as a mixed breed, was found tied up at the back of the house, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has revealed.
Joseph Varanese, 57, was rushed to the Northwest Medical Center for treatment and was discharged the following afternoon. Authorities revealed that the attack took place around 9.30 pm on Friday at a house on the 6100 block of Southwest First Street. Margate Police Department Lt Al Banatte revealed that the dog had bitten both Carolyn and Joseph multiple times. Jimmy, a family friend, spoke to WPLG and said that just days earlier Carolyn had allowed the dog to sleep on her bed. The dog had been adopted from a local rescue group a few weeks before the incident had taken place. The family friend said, "He was trying to save his mom and the dog kept going for her jugular. The dog grabbed her ankles and he started beating the dog with the wheelchair."
Neighbors of the mother and son said that the duo lived together and had seemed like nice people. One neighbor, who has lived across the street for the last three years, Fabian Gonzalez said, "It killed her? Oh wow. I know the woman who lives there was kind of sick. I’ve seen her when they come to take her to the doctor." Carolyn used a wheelchair and would frequently get an ambulance to take her to medical appointments. Another neighbor Raheem Menendez, who lived nearby for around two years, also shared, "They took [Joseph Varanese] to the hospital and he looked calm, no emotion or nothing. The mother was already dead." He described Carolyn as a soft-spoken person. A few officers had walked through Menendez's yard in order to get to the dog that had been tied at the back of the home. Menendez said, "They took the dog. It was a very calm dog. It wasn’t aggressive." According to Menendez, the dog had been an American Boxer mix and it rarely barked.
Earlier this year, a Florida woman had been left in critical condition after she was attacked by her neighbor's dogs in her backyard. The Hernando County deputies said that the woman who was in her 60s had been with her small dog at her home in Spring Hill, Action News Jax reports. A pack of larger dogs had spotted them and forced themselves into the yard through a partially opening sliding door. Other neighbors heard the commotion and grabbed sticks and lawn chairs to try and fight off the dogs but had been unsuccessful. Firefighters from the Hernando County Fire Rescue had to use equipment to break up the dogs who were attacking the woman. Five other people were also injured by the dogs, WTSP stated.