The 43-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene after police were called to a property in the village of West Melton at 10.15pm on Friday night. The man, 42, was rushed to hospital with injuries to his arm, face and abdomen. Two dogs were seized and removed from the property. It is not clear which breed they are, although South Yorkshire Police said neither was considered a prohibited breed under the Dangerous Dogs Act. No arrests are believed to have been made. A statement from the force said: “We were called to a property on Masefield Road in West Melton at approximately 10.15pm last night by a member of the public stating that a dog had attacked himself and a woman. “Officers attended with a Yorkshire Ambulance crew and found a man, aged 42, with an injury to one arm, as well as injuries to the other arm, abdomen and face. He was taken to hospital for further treatment. “The woman, aged 43, had been fatally bitten and despite the best efforts of emergency crews, she was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. “The dog, as well as another dog on the property, was secured by specially trained officers. Neither dog was a prohibited breed.” The incident is just the latest in a string of fatal attacks this year, which have numbered at least six and include a three-month-old baby mauled to death by a husky in Lincolnshire, a three-year-old boy killed by a cane near Rochdale and a 62-year-old man who died of after the brutality of his bride’s bully XL. In March this year alone, animal experts and vets told the Independent that the UK was seeing so many serious dog attacks – around 9,000 hospital admissions each year – that it was an unrecognized public health crisis. “There can be this tendency to move away [dog bites] almost cartoonish,” said Dr Carrie Westgarth, a lecturer in human-animal interaction at the University of Liverpool. “But the physical and mental effects can be absolutely devastating for those involved.”
