Video Included

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004

A dog is killed and a woman injured trying to stop the fight. Now she’s upset and wants something done after an attack by dangerous dogs.

The victim says the dogs dragged her pet all over the yard and spots of blood mark the scene. Making the matters worse, the woman herself is injured in the attack trying to save her own dog.

The 70-year-old woman says she was working on her car in her driveway with her dog tethered to a pole when the pit bulls attacked her small dog. Those pit bulls have since been destroyed, but not before killing her dog, a cat and injuring the woman and another dog.

The dog, named Whistle, is a Jack Russell terrier, a victim of a pit bull attack over the weekend in a west Wichita neighborhood.

“After seven years, they get to be like your children,” says Mary Miller. “We had our fun times together.”

Miller says she had Whistle tethered on a pole when two dogs attacked her small dog.

“The pit bull pulled the collar off of Whistle and drug [him] all over the yard,” said Miller, who tried to rescue Whistle but ended up getting herself hurt. “I tried to grab him…by the neck and I couldn’t get Whistle unloose.”

Whistle died just a few hours after the attack. The 70-year-old woman is left with a bloody mess and a broken hand.

“I couldn’t open the door, because my hands were full of blood and my clothes were all bloody,” Miller says.

The pit bulls’ killing spree didn’t end with Whistle. The owners put the dogs away, but within minutes the pit bulls were on the loose again. One was even shot by police after the dog turned on an officer.

There are no laws in Wichita specifically regarding pit bulls, but all dogs are to be leashed up or kept in a fenced area and must be vaccinated with ID tags. The dog owners could face up to $1,000 in fines and six months in jail if charges are filed in this case.

Miller says this is the second dog she’s had at her house that has been killed by loose dogs.