Elderly woman, 75, attacked by dog on morning walk

A Gayndah woman is urging dog owners to be more responsible after she was attacked this morning and her husband hospitalised on a separate occasion.

An elderly Burnett woman was attacked by a dog in Gayndah this morning. Photo/File

A Gayndah woman has escaped uninjured after a dog jumped a fence, ran towards her and ripped her dress apart while on her morning walk this morning.

Francesca Mellor, 75, said she was terrified when, not for the first time, a dog charged at her on her morning walk around town.

"I was walking the same way I always do and there was this big dog that had its paws up on the fence," Mrs Mellor said.

"It was barking at me so I just kept on walking before he went backwards towards the house and then started running like hell, jumping the fence and coming towards me.

"I started screaming go back inside and even yelled for help, but nobody came out. I had my arms and everything really close to my body in case he attacked again. I kept on walking for about 20 metres before he stopped following me.

"I was lucky that he just bit my dress at the back of my legs and missed my legs."

Mrs Mellor has been walking the same route along Moore, Porter, Bamboo Streets and back along the main street for the past seven years and said she has repeatedly seen dogs on the loose.

Last year Mrs Mellor's husband John was bitten by dogs on two separate occasions while riding his bike around Gayndah, resulting in infected wounds and seven weeks of back and forth trips to the hospital.

Mrs Mellor has raised the issues with the North Burnett Regional Council, however said people need to be more careful with there dogs escaping their property.

"I am very kindly asking all the dog owners of Gayndah to please restrain their dogs, make sure they are behind the fence or on a lead as I would not like to report another incident, this time from a hospital bed," she said.

"We should all be able to enjoy a walk in the streets of our lovely town without having a heart attack from a dog jumping at us or even worse a bleeding wound.

"I am appealing to the dog owners of Gayndah to realise their dogs can be a weapon and could cause really bad things to happen. If these dogs were to attack a child, that child would probably be dead."

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