Woman attacked and killed by dogs in NE Travis County

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.  According to Animal Protection, the dogs involved appear to be Lab/Great Pyrenees mixes and two of the dogs appear to be a husky/Australian cattle dog mix. 

UPDATE: A Travis County judge has decided that all six of the adult dogs responsible for the death of Erin McClesky will be euthanized. 

 


 

A woman is dead after being attacked by several dogs in Northeast Travis County. Investigators say the woman's body was on the property for hours before a caretaker found her.

Travis County investigators say some, or all, six dogs attacked and killed 36-year old Erin McClesky Wednesday evening.

“There was no one at the house except the dogs when she entered the property,” Roger Wade, Travis County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies say McClesky came to the house for a business matter.

“She is a process server for a private process serving company serving civil papers” Wade said.

But she never made it off the property. A few hours later around 9:00 p.m., a caretaker for the dogs showed up and found her body.

“Animal protection officers were called to the scene and they were able to pick up all the adult dogs that may have been involved in this woman's death,” Wade said.

Voi Ngo lives just down the road from the house. He says he never had a reason to believe the dogs were vicious.

“Sometimes the dogs would come to this location, but no problem with us,” he said.

The dogs are at the Austin Animal Center's rabies quarantine facility. They will remain there for ten days for observation. “These dogs here appear to be friendly. The dogs have normal body weight they appear to be healthy,”  Tawny Hammond, chief animal services officer, said.

Animal protection officials say four of the dogs appear to be lab/Pyrenees mixes. The other two appear to be Husky/Australian Cattle Dog mixes. Once the ten days of quarantine are up, a Travis County judge will decide the fate of the six dogs.

Fourteen puppies remain at the home, where they are being watched by the same caretaker. Deputies say their owner is rarely at the home. Authorities are still puzzled as to why these seemingly innocent dogs, would turn into killers?

“This is a first for me in my career, this is rare it's an aberrant behavior for dogs to behave this way,” Hammond said.

In a statement from Austin Pets Alive, they say they are deeply saddened by the loss of this young woman. They mention dogs with little to no human interaction and isolation is recipe for creating dangerous behavior. Right now authorities don't plan on filing criminal charges, however this is still an open investigation.

Read Austin woman attacked and killed by multiple dogs