Florida mail carrier Pamela Jane Rock has died from the injuries she sustained, when attacked by five dogs after her truck broke down. She had been hospitalized in critical condition since Sunday afternoon.
Mauled by dogs
Dogs are every mail carrier’s worst nightmare. Not all of them are the cute, cuddly kind that you can carry around in a purse. The ones 61-year-old Pamela Rock encountered make Cujo look like Benji.
Everything was normal for the United States Postal Service employee until her truck broke down along a road in North Florida.
When Putnam County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found the woman lying on the ground. The suspects were discovered at a nearby home in Interlachen Lake Estates, behind a fence.
REST IN PEACE: The Florida postal worker who was killed by a pack of five dogs after her delivery truck broke down on Sunday was identified as Pamela Jane Rock, 61. https://t.co/K8pTnGNR8W pic.twitter.com/oG7J8TspMz
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) August 24, 2022
hey had been called out by a nearby resident who “heard the woman screaming for help and saw five dogs attacking her.” Several of the neighbors tried pulling the snarling and snapping animals off. One even “shot a gun into the air” to scare them away.
As soon as they hit the scene, deputies “attempted to perform first aid on the mail carrier who was severely bleeding.” They soon got her moved to a trauma center in Gainesville.
Despite the best efforts of her medical team, Ms. Rock later died as a result of her injuries. The dogs are in custody of the Putnam County Animal Control Unit and will be euthanized.
Keep animals secured
Sheriff H.D. DeLoach issued a statement proclaiming their “hearts are with the victim and her family as they navigate through this tragic event.”
He also notes that it “is imperative that dog owners take responsibility in keeping their animals in a secured location for their safety and those around.” The owners of the dogs “have been cooperative thus far” and an investigation is ongoing.
The size and breed details on the dogs were not provided. Ms. Rock’s niece relates that the victim “had recently completed training with the Postal Service and was in a postal vehicle when it broke down Sunday in a neighborhood about 65 miles south of Jacksonville.”
She also noted that “her aunt was horrifically wounded and that doctors amputated an arm in their attempt to save her.” Animal control officials confirm they “had visited the dogs’ home at least twice in the last three years.”
This tragic incident is the second attack involving canines in two days, in the state of Florida.
The previous day, “another woman in her sixties was attacked and killed by a pack of dogs in Holmes County, Florida. In that vicious assault, the 69-year-old woman was reportedly bitten over 100 times.“