A Florida mail carrier died Monday after being brutally mauled by five dogs when her truck broke down in a rural area the day before, authorities say.
Jane Rock, 61, was screaming for help as the pack ambushed her, calling the attention of neighbors who arrived too late to stop the mauling, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.
Rock’s niece said she had just started the job in December and was excited about it. Now, her family is enraged, questioning how the dogs’ owners could be so negligent.
“They did not just attack her, they were ripping her apart,” Rock’s niece, Kaydee Richley, told WTLV.
Neighbors tried to free Rock from the dogs’ grip but were unsuccessful, even after someone fired a rifle into the ground, cops said.
By the time deputies arrived, the dogs had returned to their yard, which they had escaped by removing rocks under the fence.
Rock was flown to a trauma center in Gainesville with severe wounds, cops said. After losing too much blood, authorities said she died on Monday evening.
“Her heart stopped twice and her blood pressure was all over the place,” Richley said, adding that surgeons amputated an arm in a last-ditch attempt to save her.
Cops said animal control had been called to the area of Monday’s mauling four times in the last three years for “vicious animal complaints.” Spokesperson Joe Wells said it was likely that the same dogs were involved on Sunday.
A resident who lived near the mauling in Interlachen, Mary Campbell, said she’d known the dogs involved to be dangerous for years. So much so, she told The New York Times, that she made her daughter take a different route to her bus stop to avoid the dogs, fearful they’d escape and attack.
“They’re all aggressive,” Campbell said.
Campbell said she heard Rock’s cries for help on Sunday afternoon, which were quickly followed by first responders arriving near the home where the five aggressive dogs were known to live.
The dogs involved were mixed breed, Campbell said. Cops confirmed Tuesday that all five had been euthanized.
Tyler Neelon, 24, a neighbor of the dogs’ owner, told the Times on Tuesday that Rock would often place an apple alongside residents’ mail inside mailboxes on Sundays.
“She was the sweetest,” he said.