When a pack of dogs attacked her three children as they stepped off the school bus last Thursday, Courtney Williams dashed over to help. The dogs then turned on the 35-year-old Quitman, Georgia, mom, who was later found dead in her neighbor’s yard.
Williams’ cause of death has yet to be released. Regardless, the attack left the family grieving just three days before Mother’s Day. And she wasn’t the only one harmed.
During the scuffle, Williams’ 12-year-old son had pushed his 10-year-old sister out of the way and was hospitalized with serious injuries.
Fatal dog attacks, while rare, claim dozens of lives in the U.S. each year. Although experts say it’s difficult to predict when a dog will attack, dog owners and lovers can take precautions to avoid the risk of their dog or dogs in their area inflicting bite wounds.
Several people have been killed in dog attacks across the U.S. this year.
In March, a dog fatally mauled a 3-month-old baby boy and seriously injured his parents at the family’s Woodbridge, New Jersey home. Police pronounced the baby dead at the scene, while his mother, 21, and father, 27, were treated at a hospital and released the same day. The dog, a pit bull, was put down after the incident, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
That attack came weeks after an English Bulldog killed a 4-year-old named Beau Clark in Hartselle, Alabama, in late February. The boy’s family was close with the owners of the dog, and it had no history of violent behavior and knew…
