Dog Attacks Animal Worker

Safety at Work

Fort Lauderdale, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) – A frantic video captured the moments after an animal care worker was mauled by a dog during the last week of May.

Animal control worker Martina Bernard was attacked on May 29 while she was visiting a home in Fort Lauderdale. Body cam footage from Broward County Sheriff’s deputies showed the aftermath of her attack. Officers responded to a call of a woman being mauled by a dog.

The videos show the officers finding Bernard at the scene. She was laying on the ground in the backyard with her face covered in blood. The dog’s owner was seen in the video nearby, along with a neighbor and her son. The neighbors were holding down the dog which had been stabbed.

"Get the dog or I'm gonna shoot it if it's biting her, I'm gonna shoot the dog if it's biting her, get the dog right now," the officer said in the video. "Put the dog on a f---ing leash before I shoot it."

The officer quickly turned to Bernard who was conscious, but badly injured.

"Three kids need me, please hurry," Bernard said.

"Let me see where you're bit," the officer responded.

"All over my head, my face, my breast, my leg," Bernard said. "Please hurry."

"They're on the way, the ambulances are coming, I hear them in the background. Relax, they're coming," the officer told her in the video.

After putting on gloves, the officer moved closer to Bernard to check on her wounds. He said he was checking for arterial bleeding and whether Bernard needs immediate assistance to stop the bleeding.

Moment later more officers and ambulances arrived. In the video, the first officer unholstered his weapon and prepared to shoot the dog if it ran or attacked. The officer warned neighbors and the dog’s owner what would happen.

"I'm gonna have to shoot this if it moves," he said. "Have your mom get up, I'm gonna have to shoot it. I can't shoot it with you that close."

Other officers were able to snare the dog around the neck without shooting it, and it was loaded into the back of Bernard’s truck. Bernard was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to a local hospital.

Bernard had been performing a welfare check on the American Staffordshire terrier mix when it began to attack her. Police said a neighbor called 911 after hearing a woman call for help and seeing the dog with its teeth around her neck.

The neighbor, 45-year-old Saskia Peralta, said they heard Bernard screaming for help.

"I'm next door, I heard a woman screaming, it was the animal control lady, she was trying to get the dog," Peralta said. "The dog was mauling her…she was screaming for her life."

Peralta was scratched in the incident, but her son, 24-year-old Gregory Campbell, suffered a wound to his abdomen. Bernard had bites to her scalp, ear and body, and needed nearly 1,000 stitches, according to GoFundMe account set up online by Primrose Thompson and Charmaine Briscoe.

“She was viciously attacked and sustained deep wounds to her scalp, ear, and body, requiring emergency surgery and 960 stitches to save her life and begin reconstructive healing. She's currently in Broward General Hospital, recovering with the strength and courage that only a true warrior could carry,” the request said. “In the midst of the chaos, she called out her own name, claiming her will to live, and then called out the names of her niece and nephews, remembering exactly why she needed to survive.”

In the video, the officer spoke with the dog’s owner who said Bernard was there to ensure the dog was up to date on its rabies shots.

"He was fine but then he's very tricky," the owner said.

"He just jumped on her?" the officer asks.

"Yes," the owner responded.

Campbell said they tried to get the dog off of her.

“The dog had its teeth in her neck, so we rushed next door and attempted to separate the animal control employee from the dog," Campbell said.

Campbell and his mother first tried to use a shovel to get the dog off the animal control officer. When that didn’t work, Peralta handed Campbell a knife.

“The dog saw me coming with a knife and proceeded to attack me, and I attacked the dog with a knife as well," he said. "My mother saw that the dog was going to attack me further, so she threw her body weight on top of the dog, and I threw my body weight on top of the other part of the dog."

Officers said the dog was later euthanized.

Thompson said Bernard has a long road to recovery after suffering life-threatening injuries.

"She’s really bandaged up because she suffered serious wounds," she said.

As of Sunday, the GoFundMe account has raised nearly $14,000.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, animal attacks accounted for 227 on-the-job fatalities between 1992 and 1997.

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