As she was waiting at a bus stop in Toronto on Wednesday, two dogs approached Anita Brown and she quickly realized that something bad was about to happen.
“There was two dogs behind me and then I’m like, okay where is the owner?” Brown told Global News.
“Nobody else was there but me and the two dogs and I’m like, ‘I hope this dog is not going to attack me. Please, please Lord.'”
One dog was standing in front of her, with the other to her right side, she said.
“I’m praying inside but I’m shaking,” she said.
Brown, holding a shopping cart, swung the cart in the hope that it would scare the dogs away.
But instead the dogs began growling and one of them jumped at her, knocking her to the ground, and the second one then joined in on the attack, she said.
“I’m there crying, I’m praying to God. God help me, help me. And I’m screaming ‘somebody help me,'” she said.
“I was scared for my life lying in the floor.”
Brown said she then got the strength to get up and find safety in a woman’s van who happened to be driving by.
As she was getting into the van, she was attacked again, Brown recounted.
Brown said she was so nervous that she may have been killed, she couldn’t stop shaking as paramedics brought her to the hospital.
She said she had initially lost feeling in her hand, and thought she might have lost her hand for good, but eventually a few hours later feeling came back.
Toronto police issued a public safety alert about the incident on Friday, which said that officers responded on Wednesday at around 8:39 p.m. to the Martin Grove Road and John Garland Boulevard area, south of Finch Avenue West in the city’s west end, for an animal complaint.
It detailed the attack Brown recounted and said that the dogs — which still haven’t been located — were possibly Pit Bull Terriers or a similar breed, and didn’t have leashes on or an owner present.
After the attack on Brown, the dogs reportedly went on to attack another individual, and then attempt to attack a few others.
“Another passerby followed the dogs and saw the dogs attack a cyclist, and attempt to attack a resident in his yard and a TTC Wheel-trans operator, who was able to close the doors in time,” police said.
Police deemed Brown’s injuries serious and life-altering but not life-threatening.
Brown, who works as a cleaner, said she will be unable to work until she is healed — work that she needs to support her 14-year-old daughter.
Brown said she has stitches on her face, arm, has a broken arm, and is in pain, but she is thankful to be alive and is determined to persevere.
“I’m still here standing. So I have to say thank God,” she said.
“I’m a strong person. I got through this, I’ll fight my way again.”
Investigators are now trying to identify the dogs and their owner “as there is a concern for public safety.”
Officers released an image and described both dogs as black and white, with “larger builds.”
“I don’t know who is the owner … but this is a bad, bad, bad situation right now. That you let your dog out and this happened,” Brown said.
Anyone with information can contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously.