A horrific dog attack on Thursday — just three days before Mother’s Day — left a Georgia mother dead and at least one of her children wounded.
The incident occurred afternoon at a bus stop behind the Brooks County Middle School in the town of Quitman, about 17 miles west of Valdosta, according to a news release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and reporting from NBC News.
The deceased was identified as 35-year-old Courtney Williams.
A Georgia mother was fatally mauled by dogs who attacked her and her children Thursday, just days before Mother’s Day. https://t.co/wNxHcn1x6j
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 12, 2024
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Deputies from the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene around 4:45 p.m. following reports of several minors being attacked by a dog near the 2000 block of Webster Road, the GBI said.
“When deputies arrived, they encountered several aggressive dogs on the property. It was determined that an individual had already taken several minors to a local hospital,” the agency said in the news release.
“Deputies subsequently located Williams’ body in the yard of the home,” the GBI said.
Authorities were carrying out an autopsy as part of the ongoing investigation of the incident.
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According to NBC News, Williams’ sister-in-law said in a Facebook post that three of Williams’ children were attacked by dogs belonging to a neighbor.
She wrote that “one of Williams’ sons pushed his sister out of harm’s way and suffered several lacerations that required staples,” the outlet reported. “The other two children were fine but ‘shook up and still processing things.’”
”I do feel for the family and for the kids because now they are going to have to celebrate Mother’s Day without their mother,” an unidentified neighbor told WALB-TV in nearby Albany, Georgia.
Other residents speaking to the outlet stressed the need for animal control in the area.
“People dump dogs all over the county, and no one can get help with them because there’s no county animal control,” one person said.
“Praying for this woman’s family. This is so sad,” the resident added.
The nation has been experiencing a surge in the abandonment of pets, Bloomberg reported in January.
The number of stray dogs sent to shelters spiked by 6 percent between January and November 2023 compared with 2022, according to Shelter Animals Count.
“Shelters are quite literally at crisis and some of them are making the decision to close their doors or reduce hours of operation or reduce the kind of animals that they bring in,” Stephanie Filer, the organization’s executive director, told Bloomberg.
Animal adoptions declined and pet abandonment increased because of financial troubles and rental restrictions, the outlet reported.
