The attack happened Tuesday in the Palmetto Villas neighborhood.

Another Gainesville resident was injured Tuesday morning when she was mauled by two dogs as she walked her dogs.

Lorraine M. Anderson, 59, was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital with a possible arm fracture and bite and puncture wounds to her body, arms and head, including a partly severed ear, according to the Gainesville Police Department and Gainesville Fire Rescue.

One of Anderson's dogs was killed in the attack, police reported.

Three other instances of dogs injuring people or other animals have been reported in the past few months. The most notable involved the September death of Bella, a small mixed breed, as she was being walked by owner Linda Swinburn in the Northwood Pines neighborhood.

Nathaniel Pettiford, the owner of the dogs that killed Bella, has been charged with culpable negligence and animal cruelty.

Tuesday’s attack was reported about 11:40 a.m. at 3400 NW 21st Drive in the Palmetto Villas neighborhood. Anderson was holding one of the attacking dogs by the neck when officers arrived.

She released it and the dog went to its yard at 3425 NW 22nd Drive through a hole in the fence, GPD Chief Inspector Jorge Campos reported in a news release.

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Anderson was walking her two small dogs when she heard growling behind her. She turned around and saw the two dogs trying to attack her dogs, so she picked her dogs up and tried to slowly walk away.

According to the incident report, the dogs then attacked the dogs in her arms. During the scuffle, she pinned one of the attacking dogs between her legs and had the other by its collar, but one of them bit her arm so hard she dropped her male dog, which was killed by the attacking dogs.

Neighbor Brandi Sutton, who Anderson feared would also be attacked, called 911.

"I saw her holding the dog after I heard the screaming," Sutton said. "I was in my car and when I saw her on the ground and heard her scream to call 911, that's what I did. I only saw her with the one dog. She said the black dog has already taken one of her dogs and left. At that point she had already stopped the attack and was holding the dog in place."

Sutton said she often heard the attacking dogs barking whenever there was any kind of noise outside.

"This attack is terrifying," Sutton said.

Alachua County Animal Services took custody of the attacking dogs and the woman’s dead dog.

The attacking dogs' owner, William Hicks, 26, surrendered both to Animal Services. He said neither had been aggressive toward other animals before, police reported. He was given a citation, police said.

Hicks told The Sun Tuesday the dogs are catahoula hound and pit bull mixes. They are 7 years old, were litter mates and he’d had them since they were puppies.



“”This is the first time anything like this has happened. I don’t know what to say. It’s heartbreaking to go through this,” he said.



Animal Services Director Ed Williams said the dogs were American Staffordshire terriers, or pit bulls. One had the merle coat pattern characteristic of a catahoula. Neither dog was neutered.

The dogs will be held in quarantine for 10 days and then euthanized, Williams said.

"We've never had anything on these dogs generated in our system before," Williams said. "They seem to be people-friendly. When I go to the kennel they'll come up and lick and wag their tails. They are probably aggressive to small animals. (Anderson) reached down to pick up her dog and when she did, she got bit on the ear and arm."

Anderson's dog that was killed appeared to be a chihuahua mix, Williams said. He believes it likely died quickly in the attack.

The death of Bella spurred new policies and procedures by the Alachua County Commission and Animal Services.

Animal Services must now impound a dog that is under investigation for being dangerous, unless the officer determines it is safe to leave the dog with the owner.

The fees for animal citations were increased to more closely match the city of Gainesville's and county officials closed a loophole in which animal owners were given multiple first-time citations for equivalent violations.

Late last year, a puggle — a pug and beagle mix — named Fred was killed by an American Staffordshire terrier named Buster as Fred was being walked in an Alachua subdivision.

On Nov. 28 a dog got out of a house and attacked the 9-year-old son of Chris Blake on Northwest 40th Avenue near Stephen Foster Elementary School. It also killed a cat. Blake said a neighboring home had motion-triggered cameras that recorded the attack.