A New Sudbury woman is worried about the safety of others, especially children, after an aggressive dog lunged at her and tore her coat.

“It was really scary,” said Lori-ann Paquette.

Paquette said she was walking from her home, near the corner of Auger Avenue and Hawthorne Drive, toward the New Sudbury Centre early Monday morning when she encountered a woman with a pitbull-type dog.

“I had never seen the dog before,” she said. “It was a tan colour, with short, short hair. I think it was a pitbull or bulldog.”

The dog was on a retractable leash and seemed to be under the woman’s control at first, but as Paquette walked by them, the dog “leapt towards me,” she said. “I thought it was going for my leg, but luckily it just got a hold of my jacket and was shaking it. I was screaming, ‘Help me!’”

The dog “must have let go,” she said, and she was not physically hurt. Her jacket, however, “was all ripped at the bottom and I was pretty shaken up.”

The woman walking the dog was not its owner, Paquette said.

“I think she yelled her name but I couldn’t hear her,” she recounted. “She said she needed my information to give to the owner, but I thought the dog was trying to leap toward me again. I was scared, and close to my home, so I just took off.”

Paquette said she missed an appointment that morning as a result of the incident and remained rattled throughout the remainder of the day.

“Everything happened so quickly,” she said. “I had never had something happen like this before. The down filling was coming out of my jacket and I was in shock, crying. It was an awful experience.”

While she was feeling a bit calmer by late afternoon, Paquette said she remains concerned for others in the neighbourhood who might encounter the same animal.

“The kids had just got on the school bus when it happened, or it could have mangled one of them,” she said. “Thank god it wasn’t a child or an older person.”

She feels the dog should be muzzled and kept away from people.

She said she communicated her concerns to both Greater Sudbury Police and the city’s animal control department, but neither was able to do much since she didn’t know the name of the owner or where the dog lives.

“It’s unfortunate because the dog is still going to be walking around the neighbourhood,” she said. “I’m scared if I go for a walk I might meet up with this dog again, or it might hurt a child or another person.”

jmoodie@postmedia.com