A petrified mother-of-three bravely saved her children when their ‘protective’ family dog attacked and wouldn’t stop ‘until someone was dead’.
Emma Dean and her children – aged four, seven, and nine – were staying with her in-laws, Gary Hall and Joanne White’s home in Woodchurch, Merseyside.
But the weekend visit on February 15 soon went awry when family pooch Bruno ‘saw red’ and tried to attacked the mother, her three youngsters and her in laws.
The 25-year-old explained her two eldest children were fast asleep on the sofa while her youngest joined her in the kitchen, but as the little boy did so Bruno began to growl.
The mother said the pet, who had been rescued eight weeks prior, was ‘protective’ over her, but she quickly told him off and ordered him away to her father-in-law.
Within seconds of being told off by Gary, 43, the dog ‘nipped’ him and proceeded to launch a vicious attack on him as well as 44-year-old grandmother, Joanne.
Emma told the Liverpool Echo: ‘The next minute the dog just attacked his leg.
‘I quickly got my kids on the chair I was sitting on and wheeled them to the back porch to safety and shut the door.’
Feeling ‘helpless’ as the rescue dog attacked her father-in-law, whilst she ushered her children to safety and called the police.
Although Gary managed to run to the safety of the second floor, the animal quickly set its sights on Joanne and ‘ragg[ed] her everywhere on the floor’.
The grandmother was bitten ‘over 60 times on her arms and face,’ according to Emma, with her father-in-law missing a chunk from his leg following the attack.
When Merseyside Police arrived to the scene, they told Joanne to let go of the animal, but she was too ‘scared’ in case it launched another terrifying assault.
It was thought Bruno was a staffy breed, but the mother-of-three know believes he may have been a mix, with a post-mortem currently underway to determine the animal’s ancestry.
‘(Joanne) is in a bad way in hospital. She needs surgery again today. Thankfully, my kids are fine, they have just been shaken up by it,’ Emma added.
‘My youngest thought his nan was dead. It was scary, it was upsetting as well because we did love the dog. We were told he was nice around kids.’
She believes the once ‘lovely’ dog turned after becoming jealous of her child and once he had tasted blood ‘wasn’t stopping until someone was dead’.
‘I’m just so glad I was there because they wouldn’t have been able to ring the police. It was my fast thinking that saved everyone,’ the mother-of-three added.
In a video posted to his TikTok account, Gary gave his followers an update on the traumatic ordeal as well as his partner’s condition.
‘Some people know we have been in hospital over the weekend,’ he said: ‘Bruno out of the blue, we don’t know what was wrong with him.
‘Fingers crossed it was just an illness with him because he was an amazing dog.’
He added: ‘I’d like to thank the police and the ambulance for everything that they did. The dog wasn’t bad we weren’t bad owners just something wasn’t right with the dog.
‘We are waiting for an autopsy to be done on him. We are all gutted about the way it happened he was brilliant dog, he was brilliant with the kids, he was brilliant with us.’
Thanking his partner for her bravery and for saving his life, he said: ‘Jo is in a bad way, her arms have been bitten over 30 odd times.
‘If she hadn’t of done what she did, I would be dead now and I cannot thank her more than anything in the world.’
A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: ‘One of the injured has been released from hospital and one remains. As the dog was handed over to be humanely destroyed it was not typed.’