Two women have been jailed for a year after their neighbor was “literally eaten alive” by their hungry dog.
Hayley Sulley, 30, and Della Woods, 29, of Norris Green in Liverpool were at a barbecue when their presa canario crossbreed, Charlie, made his way into the backyard of the women’s retired neighbour, Clifford Clarke, 79.
The dog had not been fed for 45 hours and was eating plastic bowls, cigarette butts and drinking dirty water. Clarke, who had celebrated his birthday just the day before, was cooking lamb and had left his kitchen door open.
Clarke was attacked so badly, his left arm was amputated and the other one was “hanging by a thread.”
Neighbours said they tried getting the dog off Clarke as he sank his teeth into the man’s arm and dragged him around the backyard.
One neighbor described the dog as “snarling” and “foaming at the mouth” as Clarke kept yelling, “Get off of me.”
Police said that when they arrived, the dog was so crazed that he started eating the end of a rifle and even after being shot, got up and started attacking again.
In sentencing the two women, Judge Mark Brown said Clarke had “literally been eaten alive” and that both women would be banned from ever owning a dog again.
“Mr. Clarke suffered a horrific death and you have taken away from his family the love and companionship he would have provided,” Brown said. “I am satisfied this dreadful and forceful attack on Mr. Clarke was entirely avoidable.”
Gary Simpson, senior crown prosecutor with the Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service, said Sulley and Woods should have time to reflect on their actions.
“The guilty pleas of these two women have thankfully brought this case to a relatively speedy conclusion and have saved Mr. Clarke’s relatives the ordeal of a trial,” he said. “Hayley Sulley and Della Woods were both responsible for the dog’s welfare and behavior on that fateful day. Their failure to make sure the dog was cared for and under control has led to a man’s death and they must now come to terms with that. Our thoughts are with the family of Mr. Clarke at this sad time.”