Lorain/Elyria, OH
Vet attacked by dogs had tried to save the animals
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EATON TWP. — Veterinarian Lisa Fox Wright said she was trying to save two Neopolitan mastiff Kane Corso mix dogs from traffic on busy state Route 82 on Wednesday afternoon when she was suddenly attacked.
The dogs, a male weighing about 140 pounds and a female weighing about 120 pounds, left her with wounds on her arms and her body.
“I fell once on my back, and the male went for my throat,” said Fox Wright, who is almost three months pregnant. “I thought my husband would find me mauled in the front yard.”
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Fortunately, her training as a vet kicked in and she did not turn and run, leaving her back vulnerable. After struggling to her feet, she was determined to get to a safe place.
“My thought was to get to the porch,” she said.
Once she was safely inside the porch but locked out of her house, the dogs circled outside marking the bushes.
She said it felt like a miracle to find her cell phone still in her pocket so she could call for help.
Her father, Dr. William Fox at Fox Veterinary Hospital, called 911, which alerted the Lorain County Dog Warden’s office about the dogs, which also tried to attack some schoolchildren.
She said she calmed down when the Eaton Township Fire Department showed up, gave her oxygen and began treating her wounds.
Several hours after the attack, the two dogs were struck and killed on the road, said deputy dog warden Nelson Delgado. Their heads will be sent off for rabies testing.
The dogs’ owner, Donald Goble Jr., 27, was charged with having dogs at large and failure to have a kennel license. The law requires such a license for anyone keeping more than eight dogs; Delgado said Goble had 11, including the two involved in the attack.
Delgado said Goble told him that coyotes had been in the area upsetting the female, which was in heat. She burrowed under her cage, and the male broke the divider fence to follow, Delgado said.
Goble, who was not at home at the time of the attack, “apologized and is sorry, but I said the bottom line is that she’s pregnant and she got attacked,” Delgado said.
Fox Wright, 25, said she feels sorry for the loss of any pet, but her husband Jim Wright Jr. was less charitable.
“I just want those dogs out of the community,” Wright said of the dogs kept by Goble on the property he rents at 36821 Royalton Road.
Wright said he thinks there are inadequate safeguards at the property and that Goble’s dogs did not act like normal domesticated dogs.
“I’ve had big dogs around all my life, and they’re gentle as kittens,” he said.
Goble could not be reached for comment.
It took nearly an hour and a half for the deputy dog warden to show up Wednesday, and Eaton Township firefighters watched cautiously as the dogs chased several cars following the attack.
Wright said he was upset that no deputy arrived to take a report and blamed layoffs at the sheriff’s department that have decimated road patrols.
“It’s an attack on a person whether it’s a dog or not,” said Wright, a volunteer firefighter in Columbia Township.
A deputy answering the phone said dog attacks are normally handled by the dog warden and not deputies.
Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.
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when any dog attacks it should be put down and the owner jailed for keeping such an animal.
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I am so upset about this. I hope that Dr. Fox Wright will be ok. The only good thing is that she is a vet and knew what to do. Other people would NOT have known what to do. I am thankful that the dogs will no longer put anyone else in danger. The owner must be held accountable. He should be sued (although if he is two months behind in his rent, it does not seem like he would have anything to be sued for). and please tell me, how can a person have 11 dogs, feed them, take care of them, etc when they cannot pay their rent? seems to me he has his priorities all wrong. Maybe the dogs attacked because they were hungy?
Take care Dr. Fox Wright. We are all sorry you had to go through this terrible ordeal.
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It certainly doesn’t sound like he was “taking care” of the dogs - or this never would have happened.
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well duh lady, you dont go after stray animals, who knows what they were traned to do or whatever
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todd , should they do the same to you when you hit or throw stuff or something at an animal and put you down?
cant blame animals for reacting to strangers; how do you know what they were put thru or if they were abused, treated bad or tought to be mean? how do you know they werent traned to react to strangers n a certain way? i say; punish the owner. let the dogs be retraned. they do it on animal planet.
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i myself saw these dogs playing and romping along side the road wednesday afternoon. they didnt appear to be vicious at all i almost stopped to put them in my car so they wouldnt be injured. how was mrs wright supposed to know they would attack. being a vet i would say she acted in the right way in trying to help them. and certainly didnt deserve to be attacked.
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