Three bystanders came to aid a woman who was walking her service dog after a Pitbull attacked her and her dog.

After the incident, Socorro resident, Corbly Shaffer suffered a heart attack and was transported to a medical facility in Albuquerque.

Corbly said around 5 p.m. on March 25 she was walking Huck Finn, her 13-year-old German Short Haired Pointer and a certified service dog, in front of the shops on Garfield Avenue and crossing to go through the park.

“When I see a loose dog and I change course. Well … I didn’t see the dog in time and the dog saw Huck Finn and, from all the way across the park made a beeline, and immediately attacked,” Shaffer said. “Now to me, that’s not natural dog behavior; I think that’s a trained fighting dog.”

She said the dog was a “beautiful” Pitbull with a collar.

“I was in the street I turned to walk away, and I didn’t want to run, and the dog just came right up. I tried to pull the dog off and I fell. I’m on the ground trying to get up and trying to pull the dog off and I’m screaming for help,” Shaffer said.

Three men came up to help her, pulled the dog off and were able to get the loose Pitbull on a leash. She said they told her they had seen the dog all day and wondered who the owner was.

The men called 911 and she said it took half an hour for police to arrive and they told her they were frustrated because they were having a hard time getting ahold of animal control “by the time I had to leave and come home, because it was freezing cold out there, they were still trying to get ahold of animal control.”

Police reports said due to not having access to the Socorro animal shelter and no report of the dog being vicious, the officer originally advised dispatch to hold the call until animal control was working.

Once the officer was advised the dog had attacked another dog and bit a female he went to the scene and made contact with Shaffer.

The officer reported that he observed a small bleeding laceration on Shaffer’s hand.
“I had been bitten and I was in shock too.” She dropped off Huck Finn at home and went to the hospital to get checked out.

“I wasn’t initially thinking I would go but they said I could have an infection and then I realized that my chest was hurting,” Shaffer said.

She said because she lives with chronic pain, she doesn’t often realize she is in pain, but the pain was intense and getting worse.

“That’s when they started taking blood and doing tests and they told me I was having a heart attack and they put me in the helicopter and I went to Albuquerque, Shaffer said.

She had a friend check on Huck Finn while she was at the hospital. When the friend took him to the vet, they found that he had also been bitten by the Pitbull.

“You can see how awful and nasty it looks,” Shaffer said. “He has always been a pacifist dog; I always would tell people that I’m happy to let you use him to socialize your puppy, if he doesn’t like something he just walks away.”

According to reports, officers made contact with the Pitbull’s owner, Tracy Fowler of Socorro, and advised her of the attack and that her dog would have to kept at the shelter for a mandatory 10-day quarantine.

In the meantime, Shaffer said she has missed several days of work and has had to travel for her multiple rounds of rabies shots.

“The whole county has a dog issue, there needs to be serious repercussion for people when they have their dogs out; I asked for this dog to be put down.” Shaffer said.

Jessica Carranza | Editor