A grandmother killed in a dog attack was likely to have been trying to break up two American bulldogs fighting when one turned on her, an inquest has heard.
Ann Dunn, 65, was found collapsed with ‘catastrophic injuries’ on 3 October in her Liverpool home, which she shared with seven dogs.
According to BBC, Senior coroner Andre Rebello, who recorded a narrative verdict told the hearing at Liverpool’s Gerard Majella Courthouse he did not consider her death an accident or misadventure.
The senior coroner for Liverpool and Wirral said: ‘She was looking after family dogs at her home. More likely than not she separated two dogs from fighting, securing one in the kitchen.
‘The other dog has then attacked her, causing severe, fatal injuries.’
Mrs Dunn, who worked as a domestic assistant at Liverpool John Moores University, had been due to collect her grandchild from school in the afternoon.
When she failed to appear, her family members went to her residence in St Brigid’s Crescent, Kirkdale.
Mr Rebello said: ‘They’ve looked through the letterbox and saw Ann lying in the hallway, unresponsive.’
The inquest, attended by Mrs Dunn’s siblings, heard she was pronounced dead by paramedics at about 16:30 GMT.
Reading police reports, Mr Rebello said there were five adult American bulldogs that belonged to Mrs Dunn’s son, Stephen, living in the house, as well as a Jack Russell-crossbreed and a 10-week-old Labrador.
The court heard Mr Dunn said the dogs had not been violent towards humans before, although about eight months before his mother’s death two of the adult males, Cairo and Bronx, began fighting with each other and he was injured while trying to separate them.
At 13:20 on the day of her death, Mrs Dunn phoned her son and said she was going to let Bronx out of the bedroom, where he had been kept because he had been crying.
He advised her to keep the dog separate from Cairo so the two dogs did not fight, the inquest heard.
Mr Dunn was arrested after his mother’s death on suspicion of being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control.
