I slept with my beloved pit bull — until he tried to eat me alive
July 19, 2022
A woman who slept with her dog was almost eaten alive when the canine snapped and devoured “half her arm.”
Tya Lucas, 41, was at home in Lewisville, Texas, introducing her new puppy, Roo, to her friend Peter, 33, on May 16 when her nearly 100-pound pit bull, Hercules, violently turned on her, reps for the Lewisville Police Department confirmed to The Post.
“The puppy went to jump on the couch so I went to pick the puppy up — and my friend told him to get down,” Lucas said. That’s when Hercules lunged at Peter and sunk his teeth into his neck.
“The pit bull jumped on my friend’s neck and he started bleeding. I was like ‘What the f–k?!’ He was latched onto the back of his neck,” she said.
Tya told Kennedy News she sprang into action and pried the pit bull off her friend and shoved him into the safety of the bathroom.
That’s when Hercules turned his aggression on Tya. “He must have smelled [Peter’s] blood all over me and started attacking me. I don’t remember a lot of it. I remember looking down and my flesh being torn off my arm,” Tya recounted.
“I don’t remember the feeling of it, I remember screaming, ‘Hercules, it’s me.’ ”
The dog tore off two-thirds of Tya’s right arm, ate her bicep and sank its teeth into her leg and foot. She was screaming, “Help me, I’m dying” when her daughter, Tana, 20, and her husband, Harley, 21, rushed into the living room.
Tya, 41, believed she was going to die but “fought somehow to stay alive” while her dog attacked her for several minutes.
“[Tana] saw the dog was trying to kill me. She reached out her hand to me and I tried to grab it but I missed her by inches,” Tya said. “It grabbed onto my leg and dragged me further away. Her husband walked in and he beat the dog off of me. I don’t remember that part. I don’t know if I was passing out.”
Harley stepped in to wrestle the canine away from Tya and carry her outside, when officer Jordan Potter arrived on the scene in response to Tana’s frantic 911 call.
Lewisville Police Department Public Information Coordinator Matt Martucci told The Post: “Officer Potter is very proud of the fact that he was able to save the woman’s life — but if you ask him it was all just in the line of duty to serve and protect the residents of Lewisville. This was a pretty traumatic situation for this family [but his] actions kept it from being a deadly situation and provided a little comfort for the family”
Tya truly believed she was going to die as Hercules continued to attack her and drag her around her home.
Harley, 21, and Tana, 20, arrived home just in time to rescue Tya and save her life.
I don’t know how many times he bit me. I think it went on for about five minutes. I thought I was going to die. I fought somehow to stay alive,” she said. “A good two-thirds of my arm was torn off. He ate my entire bicep.”
Officer Potter immediately began life-saving measures. “The police said if I’d passed out in the house, he would have eaten me from my insides,” Tya said. “They said they’d seen stabbings, gunshot wounds and they’ve never seen what they saw that day.”
“They put a tourniquet on my arm and the doctor said if he hadn’t been there to do that at that exact moment, then I wouldn’t have made it until the ambulance got there.”
Tana and Harley had found Hercules abandoned at the side of the road, covered in cigarette burns, two years earlier.
But Tya says Hercules had never shown signs of aggression before and even slept in bed with her the night before the attack.
Animal Control Officer Amanda Navarro was called to the scene and used a tether pole to secure the dog despite his consistent thrashing.
After Potter tended to her wounds, Tya was rushed to the hospital, where she was put on a ventilator for two days. She stayed in the hospital for 19 days, where she had hundreds of stitches across her arm, leg and foot and five operations to cut the dead skin away.
Her medical bills are up to $180,000 but are expected to climb.
Tya also underwent a sixth operation where a muscle in her back was rolled up into the shape of a bicep and attached to her arm.
“My arm bends a couple of inches but it’s stiff. My hand is really swollen, my wrist doesn’t move, there’s 15 inches of nerves damaged, my nerves and tendons were crushed,” Tya said.
“For each inch that was damaged, it takes a month to come back. My wrist hangs there, I don’t have much use of my hand. I had staples in my leg and under my foot. I’m in constant pain.”
She has set up a GoFundMe to cover her medical bills, which are at $180,000 but are expected to increase.
“I need physical therapy. The discount program is $100 a week, then there’s prescriptions. I don’t even know the total of the hospital bill yet.”
Tya and Tana surrendered Hercules to police at the scene and he was put down soon after. They have no idea what triggered the aggression but Tya has been left terrified of dogs.
“He was never aggressive before. I heard him bark one time when something made him jump,” Tya said. “I’ve no idea why this happened. He slept in bed with us. I don’t know what triggered him.”
She noted that Hercules was beginning to display “food aggression” and she has begun to think about aspects of him that were changing and showing possible signs of his aggression.
Pit bulls are often the source of debate, with some insisting that the dogs are lovable and suitable pets while others note sometimes deadly levels of aggression.
Pit bulls make up only 6% of the dog population, but they’re responsible for 68% of dog attacks and 52% of dog-related deaths since 1982, Time reported.
“I never had a problem with dogs, but now I’m terrified of them,” Tya said. “I can’t go near dogs. If there’s one off a leash, I panic [like] I’m about to have an anxiety attack.”
https://nypost.com/2022/07/19/i-slept-with-my...-me-alive/
July 19, 2022
A woman who slept with her dog was almost eaten alive when the canine snapped and devoured “half her arm.”
Tya Lucas, 41, was at home in Lewisville, Texas, introducing her new puppy, Roo, to her friend Peter, 33, on May 16 when her nearly 100-pound pit bull, Hercules, violently turned on her, reps for the Lewisville Police Department confirmed to The Post.
“The puppy went to jump on the couch so I went to pick the puppy up — and my friend told him to get down,” Lucas said. That’s when Hercules lunged at Peter and sunk his teeth into his neck.
“The pit bull jumped on my friend’s neck and he started bleeding. I was like ‘What the f–k?!’ He was latched onto the back of his neck,” she said.
Tya told Kennedy News she sprang into action and pried the pit bull off her friend and shoved him into the safety of the bathroom.
That’s when Hercules turned his aggression on Tya. “He must have smelled [Peter’s] blood all over me and started attacking me. I don’t remember a lot of it. I remember looking down and my flesh being torn off my arm,” Tya recounted.
“I don’t remember the feeling of it, I remember screaming, ‘Hercules, it’s me.’ ”
The dog tore off two-thirds of Tya’s right arm, ate her bicep and sank its teeth into her leg and foot. She was screaming, “Help me, I’m dying” when her daughter, Tana, 20, and her husband, Harley, 21, rushed into the living room.
Tya, 41, believed she was going to die but “fought somehow to stay alive” while her dog attacked her for several minutes.
“[Tana] saw the dog was trying to kill me. She reached out her hand to me and I tried to grab it but I missed her by inches,” Tya said. “It grabbed onto my leg and dragged me further away. Her husband walked in and he beat the dog off of me. I don’t remember that part. I don’t know if I was passing out.”
Harley stepped in to wrestle the canine away from Tya and carry her outside, when officer Jordan Potter arrived on the scene in response to Tana’s frantic 911 call.
Lewisville Police Department Public Information Coordinator Matt Martucci told The Post: “Officer Potter is very proud of the fact that he was able to save the woman’s life — but if you ask him it was all just in the line of duty to serve and protect the residents of Lewisville. This was a pretty traumatic situation for this family [but his] actions kept it from being a deadly situation and provided a little comfort for the family”
Tya truly believed she was going to die as Hercules continued to attack her and drag her around her home.
Harley, 21, and Tana, 20, arrived home just in time to rescue Tya and save her life.
I don’t know how many times he bit me. I think it went on for about five minutes. I thought I was going to die. I fought somehow to stay alive,” she said. “A good two-thirds of my arm was torn off. He ate my entire bicep.”
Officer Potter immediately began life-saving measures. “The police said if I’d passed out in the house, he would have eaten me from my insides,” Tya said. “They said they’d seen stabbings, gunshot wounds and they’ve never seen what they saw that day.”
“They put a tourniquet on my arm and the doctor said if he hadn’t been there to do that at that exact moment, then I wouldn’t have made it until the ambulance got there.”
Tana and Harley had found Hercules abandoned at the side of the road, covered in cigarette burns, two years earlier.
But Tya says Hercules had never shown signs of aggression before and even slept in bed with her the night before the attack.
Animal Control Officer Amanda Navarro was called to the scene and used a tether pole to secure the dog despite his consistent thrashing.
After Potter tended to her wounds, Tya was rushed to the hospital, where she was put on a ventilator for two days. She stayed in the hospital for 19 days, where she had hundreds of stitches across her arm, leg and foot and five operations to cut the dead skin away.
Her medical bills are up to $180,000 but are expected to climb.
Tya also underwent a sixth operation where a muscle in her back was rolled up into the shape of a bicep and attached to her arm.
“My arm bends a couple of inches but it’s stiff. My hand is really swollen, my wrist doesn’t move, there’s 15 inches of nerves damaged, my nerves and tendons were crushed,” Tya said.
“For each inch that was damaged, it takes a month to come back. My wrist hangs there, I don’t have much use of my hand. I had staples in my leg and under my foot. I’m in constant pain.”
She has set up a GoFundMe to cover her medical bills, which are at $180,000 but are expected to increase.
“I need physical therapy. The discount program is $100 a week, then there’s prescriptions. I don’t even know the total of the hospital bill yet.”
Tya and Tana surrendered Hercules to police at the scene and he was put down soon after. They have no idea what triggered the aggression but Tya has been left terrified of dogs.
“He was never aggressive before. I heard him bark one time when something made him jump,” Tya said. “I’ve no idea why this happened. He slept in bed with us. I don’t know what triggered him.”
She noted that Hercules was beginning to display “food aggression” and she has begun to think about aspects of him that were changing and showing possible signs of his aggression.
Pit bulls are often the source of debate, with some insisting that the dogs are lovable and suitable pets while others note sometimes deadly levels of aggression.
Pit bulls make up only 6% of the dog population, but they’re responsible for 68% of dog attacks and 52% of dog-related deaths since 1982, Time reported.
“I never had a problem with dogs, but now I’m terrified of them,” Tya said. “I can’t go near dogs. If there’s one off a leash, I panic [like] I’m about to have an anxiety attack.”
https://nypost.com/2022/07/19/i-slept-with-my...-me-alive/
