A MOTHER-OF-FIVE has had to have her right leg amputated after she was attacked by two pit bulls while helping her disabled neighbour.
Candis Danielson, 35, could face also losing her left leg after the dogs “ate the flesh” from her limbs during the vicious attack on January 28, 2021.
Danielson had gone over to her neighbour Don Mehrtens residence to fix a generator she had lent him during a power outage, after stormy weather in Myers Flat, California.
Her partner, Kenneth Swafford, told KymKemp he and his fiancé had always been cautious of Mehrtens “dangerous” pit bulls and suspected they had killed other dogs – even “eating their own puppies.”
Swafford, a firefighter for Myers Flat Fire Department, insisted Mehrtens restrain his dogs on occasions when the couple went over.
But as Danielson returned to the home, the dogs sprung from the trailer and began “feasting on her legs”.
Swafford said the owner watched the dogs “rip her calf off her leg”, without intervening, before wandering off dressed only in his boxers down the street.
The pit bulls had dragged Danielson under the trailer and brutally bit her legs and feet, while her unsuspecting brother-in-law, Kirk Swafford, noticed the chaos and attempted to help her.
Without knowing it was Danielson, he attempted to distract the dogs and disrupt the attack by “hitting one in the head with a 4×4”. He and another passerby also suffered bite injuries and were treated at a nearby fire station.
The dogs were eventually restrained by members of the Myers Flat Volunteer Fire Department and California Highway Patrol after they arrived at the scene.
Danielson was transported to the Garberville Hospital and was “in extreme shock but would respond to her name,” according to an emergency responder.
Doctors initially amputated four inches below her right knee, but they were forced to amputate further as it was not healing properly.
Danielson has been warned she could also lose her left leg or at least expect it to become redundant.
She was then flown to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Fransisco where her condition continues to improve and she begins a series of skin grafts.
Her sister Shiann Davis told the Times-Standard, “We love Candis so much and she’s proving every day how much a fighter she is. She is doing so much better than we had anticipated.
“If you’re reading this and you know her, you also know how much of a fighter she is. If you don’t know her, take my word that you’d be lucky to cross paths one day,” Davis said.
Davis started a GoFundMe for her sibling after the shocking attack to raise money for her hospital bills and prospective legal fees which has reached $51,340.
Mehrtens’ two pitbulls were taken into custody by Humboldt County Animal Control and euthanized on February 11.
A hearing officially declared them as “vicious” and Mehrtens was been banned from owning any other dogs for three years.