Woman Killed By Own Dog In Eastern Pennsylvania

UPPER MACUNGIE, PA — A 32-year-old Eastern Pennsylvania woman was attacked and killed by her own dog while sitting on her deck Thursday afternoon, according to authorities. Neighbors tried in desperation to stop the attack and save the woman, identified by the Morning Call as Lisa Green. The dog was eventually shot by an off-duty police officer, and the woman was later pronounced dead at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The brutal attack began around 1:30 p.m. The dog was identified in multiple reports as a 3-year-old boxer/pit bull mix.

Neighbors who witnessed the attack reported seeing the woman laying on her back deck screaming while the dog was viciously biting her. Neighbor Loretta Ottinger told WFMZ in an on-air interview that she tried desperately to stop the attack, even going into her refrigerator and retrieving a ham bone.

"He just wouldn't stop," Ottinger said in the television interview. "I throw him the ham bone, he doesn't take it….he's so engrossed in…attacking her."

Another neighbor called an off-duty police officer who lives nearby. He rushed to the scene and shot the dog, wounding him, the Allentown Morning Call reported. The dog, identified in that report as being named Leon, was then tranquilized and taken to the Lehigh County Humane Society, where it will be put down.

Meanwhile, neighbors recall the victim as being "lovely, athletic and impeccably neat."

Ottinger, in a separate interview with the Morning Call, said Green, a Lehigh University graduate and store manager for Bed, Bath & Beyond, recently shoveled her driveway for her during a winter storm.

She said the young woman was "really close" with the dog. Authorities say they plan to test the animal to determine a cause for the attack before it is put down.