Kristi Burrell said her neighbor received death threats after his dogs attacked her and nearly killed her. “They tried to eat me alive,” she told her dad.
KATY, Texas — A Waller County woman faces a long, painful recovery after being brutally attacked by her neighbor’s four pit bulls.
Earlier this week, Kristi Burrell told KHOU 11 that the terrifying ordeal happened Friday night when the dogs jumped over her fence near FM 2855 in Katy.
“They started biting my legs and I was screaming, and I was thrashing and hitting and trying to stop them,” Burrell said in a story you’ll see only on KHOU 11. “And that’s when I felt them grab my head, and they started pulling me apart like tug-of-war … and I could feel them ripping my scalp off.”
Even though the dogs nearly killed her, Burrell is now defending her longtime neighbor, who’s been getting death threats online.
“People told me not to read the comments on posts. But when you’re not sleeping and you’re just laying there, doomscrolling,” she told KHOU 11 from her home in Katy.
After seeing the harassment, Burrell wrote a Facebook post asking people to stop the hate and threats.
“I’m a Christian. My grandpa was the deacon of our church. I have strong beliefs,” she said. “This is not a time for hate. This is not a time to blame. Justice has already been served.”
Two of the dogs were shot by a neighbor during the attack. The other two were euthanized at the owner’s request. The Waller County Sheriff’s Office also cited him for failing to restrain the animals or provide proof of rabies vaccinations.
RELATED: ‘They tried to eat me alive!’ Katy woman says neighbor’s 4 dogs attacked her | Only on KHOU 11
‘Most horrific dog attack I’ve ever seen’
Earlier this week, Burrell told us that she probably would have died if it hadn’t been for a woman who heard her screams and risked her own life to help.
“My neighbor saved me. She jumped the fence and covered my body with her own,” Burrell said.
It was that woman’s husband who shot two of the dogs.
Burrell had to be airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston with severe injuries. Some of the photos of her injuries are too graphic to share.
“My daughter received bites and tears over the majority of her body, severing through muscle and ligaments all the way to the bone on several areas,” Burrell’s father, John Hesseltine, told KHOU 11. “This is by FAR the most horrific dog attack I’ve ever seen. … I’ve seen pictures of people that survived bear attacks that didn’t look this bad.”
Hesseltine said Burrell was familiar with the neighbor’s dogs and had even petted and hugged them in the past.
“All it takes is one dominant dog that’s ahead of the pack, and they will follow that. And it could have been anything. It could have been a smell. It could have been my voice. We have newborn kittens on my property,” Burrell explained.
‘I don’t see how she could ever do that again’
The attack may mark the end of Burrell’s animal rescue work.
“She may never recover from the mental scars this incident will leave on her,” he said. “I doubt that she will ever be the same kind, gentle soul that tried so hard to be kind and rescued so many animals herself.”
The family has started a GoFundMe.com account to help with medical bills, including home health care and extensive physical therapy. The first thing she paid for with donated funds was a new pair of glasses t replace the ones destroyed in the attack.
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