Elderly woman lucky to be alive after horrifying dog attack in Leeds

Retired cleaner Mary Rollinson, 73, was walking in woods near her home in Yeadon when a huge American pit bull cross rampaged through the undergrowth and took her right arm in its jaws.

The back of Mary's right arm was ripped apart from shoulder to elbow and as she flailed to try to fight the animal off it seized her left middle finger and bit off the top.

Her partner, retired trucker Trevor Cornwell, 71, said she would have been killed if a group of workmen on a nearby industrial estate hadn't heard her terrified screams.

It took five mean to drag the dog off Mary and drag her out from underneath it.

She has spent the last six weeks since the August 27 attack in Leeds General Infirmary and has undergone multiple skin grafts to injuries that will never fully heal.

Mother of one Mary was so traumatised by the attack that she has been left with no memory of what happened to her.

She said: "I saw it out of the corner of my eye and apart from that I can't remember anything. The hospital told me it was the body's self defence mechanism kicking in because of the trauma.

"I can't thank the men who saved me enough for what they did, they were very brave."

Trevor said: "I had been doing some gardening at home and Mary decided to go off for a walk around the woods and this thing came at her through the bushes and brought her to the ground.

"It dragged her off the path and into a pond and I'm sure that if those guys hadn't heard her screams it would have killed her, it was completely berserk.

"The injuries it caused are horrific, not like anything I have ever seen from a dog attack.

"One of the men who saved her caught it on video as he held it at bay with a stick and it was massive, just solid muscle and very very aggressive, she never stood a chance.

"It took off a large part of the back of her right arm. The surgeons have done their best with skin grafts, some were successful; and other weren't.

"But the agony she has been through and trauma of that will always stay with her, I'm just doing my best to look after her, it's a miracle she's still here.

"We're dog owners ourselves, we have a black labrador, but it's beyond me why anyone would want to keep a dog like that, it was an absolute monster.

"It took five men to beat the thing off her, all five of them, and if they hadn't it would have been an even more terrible outcome."

The modest heroes who saved Mary's life declined to be named, but one of them said: "I have never seen injuries like that from a dog attack. I can only liken it to a lion pulling an antelope about, it really was horrific.

"There were five of us in the end trying to hit the dog off with sticks but it wasn't moving at all.

"It was my colleague in the end who decided a better way rather than hitting it was to put the stick in front of it to try to get it to take the stick."

HIs colleague said: "I got the biggest stick I could and tried to push it away. The dog took hold of the end of the stick and it allowed my colleagues to pull her out."

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said a 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having a dangerous dog.

The man was released without charge under investigation and the dog is being held in a police compound until the conclusion of any potential legal proceedings.