LIBERTY COUNTY – A Liberty County woman is grateful to be alive after a pack of dogs viciously attacked her.
“They pulled me from the road down into the ditch and they were just biting me everywhere,” Shari Abshier said.
Shari Abshier says the attack happened on October 22 while she was walking and exercising outside her home on County Road 109 in Devers.
Abshier already had four surgeries and has to use a vacuum bag because of the vicious attack. She said she’s seen the dogs before and wants the sheriff’s office to fully investigate the case.
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“This one is the worst, and it hurts the worst because of the tenderness. All under here I don’t have any skin,” Shari said.
With scars all over her body and covered in bandages, Shari Abshier sits next to her husband Jerry, grateful to be alive.
“It hasn’t hit me yet the trauma part,’ Abshier said.
Jerry Abshier has nightmares about what happened to his wife.
“I can’t explain to anyone what I seen but I got there just in time,” Jerry Abshier said.
Shari says the dogs crawled under a fence from a home down the street.
“They bit my feet, legs, and all the way up to my shoulders. I guess eventually they got me in the ditch. I don’t remember that, but I don’t think I blacked out. Then they just started pulling on each side all over. I felt my ear fall down and then the hair; they pulled my hair out. Then I said the Lord’s Prayer,” she said.
“I didn’t know she said that prayer it was kind of like a God thing, but it was terrible. There was blood all over here. I tried to pick her up,” Jesse Churchill said.
Neighbor Jesse Churchill heard Shari screaming and ran over to help.
“I was picking okra. I had an okra bowl, and I was slapping it trying to make all the noise I could,” Churchill said.
“I ran out the door and had a shotgun sitting by the back door. I grabbed it and opened up the garage and backed out. I knew it was bad,” Jerry said.
Jerry shot three of the dogs. The family says they called the sheriff’s office twice and it took deputies over an hour to respond. The Abshier’s want the other dogs involved in the attack to be put down.
The family says rules and laws should be in place because Liberty County does not have Animal Control Services.
“Even if it’s out in the country, if people get dogs they need to be in charge of those dogs or not have them at all,” Shari said.
Captain David Meyers with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office says the owner could face charges.
“The dogs were unprovoked when they attacked outside of the gated area which was not their property, it was on public roadway. They did attack Mrs. Abshier therefore meaning it could go all the way up to a second-degree felony,” Meyers said.
The Abshier’s are speaking with an attorney. Shari says she is grateful for her family and friends who are taking care of her. If you would like to help Shari’s family with a meal train, click here.
The sheriff’s office says they will continue to investigate. Captain Meyers says the owners are cooperating and his department is looking into why the family had to call the sheriff’s office twice.