Dog Bites Jogger; Horrific Consequence if Victim had been Child, Police Say

A protective knee wrap may have saved a West Des Moines jogger from serious injury when a dog jumped a fence and bit her, and police warned the woman fostering the rescue dog that the consequences could have been horrific if a small child unable to fend off the animal had been involved.

According to Officer Tom Wynn’s report on file at the West Des Moines Police Department, it took the combined efforts of the injured woman and her jogging partner to fight off the dog, believed to be an approximately 3-year-old Rottweiler mix dog weighing about 90 pounds.

The dog reportedly jumped a 2-foot-high chain-link fence after barking and growling at the woman. They had seen the dog was agitated and stopped, calling to a man standing in the yard of the property where the dog was fenced that he should restrain it, Wynn reported.

“The male stood by and watched, according to the women,” the officer wrote. “The dog then paced in front of them before lunging and biting one of them on her left leg near the knee. Both women then yelled and fought the dog off.”

The incident ended when the woman who later told police she was fostering the dog came out of her home and coaxed it back into the yard. When the women said they planned to call police, she reportedly said that would be OK because “it was a rescue dog.”

The dog is up-to-date on shots and was rescued from the Menlo area by AHeinz57 Pet Rescue & Transport, a nonprofit shelter located west of the metro in De Soto that takes in unwanted pets from all over the Midwest and Canada.

The woman who was bitten didn’t seek medical attention, but was advised to get a tetanus shot.

Wynn warned the woman fostering the dog that she needed to keep a better watch.

“If this had happened to a young child, the consequences could have been much worse,” he wrote.