5 Dogs Fatally Attack Mail Carrier After Truck Breaks Down In Florida

Five dogs fatally mauled a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service after her truck broke down along a road in north Florida, officials said.

Pamela Jane Rock, 61, died at a hospital on Monday night, Putnam County Sheriff's Col. Joseph Wells said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Putnam County Sheriff's deputies found the woman on the ground when they arrived at the scene in Interlachen Lake Estates on Sunday afternoon, sheriff's officials said in a Facebook post. They also found the dogs inside a fence at a nearby home.

A nearby resident told deputies they heard the woman screaming for help and saw five dogs attacking her. Several neighbors tried pulling the dogs off the woman and one shot a gun into the air to scare the dogs away, the report said.

Deputies started first aid on the woman, who was severely bleeding. They applied tourniquets until a rescue unit arrived and took the woman to a hospital, officials said. The woman was then flown to a trauma center in Gainesville.

The county's animal control unit took custody of the dogs.

The state attorneys' office has taken over because it's an active investigation and the 911 call isn't being released, WJAX-TV reported. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office says the owner of the dogs is cooperating.

"There's a specific Florida statute that deals with someone that doesn't exercise caution when it comes to an animal that they knew or should have known could've posed a danger," Col. Wells said.

First published on August 24, 2022 / 7:09 AM

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