Sally-Ann Sutton
As an out-of-control Rottweiler headed for a baby, petite Sally-Ann Sutton threw herself into the vicious dog's path, sustaining terrible injuries in the process.
Mum-of-one Sally-Ann, 56, had gone for a Christmas Day stroll with her friend Hannah and Hannah's son Bobbi, then one. They had taken another friend's shitzu, Alfie, with them. As they walked up a quiet road, the peace was disturbed by ferocious barking. Up ahead, a huge Rottweiler was attacking a woman.
The owners, who had the dog on an extendable lead, were unable to control it and, moments later, it began racing towards Sally-Ann and Hannah. Sally-Ann quickly scooped up Alfie but the powerful Rottweiler dragged the tiny dog from her grasp. Luckily, Alfie scampered to safety under a parked car but the Rottweiler began eyeing the buggy containing Bobbi.
Realising it was going to launch itself at the defenceless child, Sally-Ann, who is 5ft 2in and weighs just 7st 10lbs, jumped in front of the buggy as the snarling Rottweiler attacked.
Clamping its jaws over her right arm and sinking its teeth into her skin, the muscular dog began dragging Sally-Ann down the street. "It weighed around the same as me so I was like a feather in its jaws," says Sally-Ann, who lives in Chatham, Kent. "It pulled me halfway down the road, back towards its own house."
Hearing the commotion, residents rushed out and wrestled the dog away. "I could feel my arm hanging off inside my Puffa jacket sleeve and I was bleeding heavily," says Sally-Ann. "I was slipping in and out of consciousness when my husband Tony called for an ambulance. I'm badly asthmatic and couldn't breathe, so the paramedics had to keep my airways open."
Doctors said Sally-Ann would have bled to death if an artery four inches lower down her arm had been pierced. As it was, the muscle had been ripped from her arm. Two operations and several skin grafts followed, but she has suffered long-term health problems, including a heart attack. However, she insists she has no regrets of the actions she took on that fateful day.
"I'd do it all over again if it meant Bobbi wasn't hurt," she says. "I don't think of myself as brave, I acted instinctively." Inspector Simon Alland, from Kent Police, says Sally-Ann's injuries were the worst he'd ever seen inflicted by a dog.
"Right from the start, she played down what she did but, in my eyes, she is a remarkable woman," he says. Following the incident, the Rottweiler was destroyed and the owners of the dog were fined. Sally-Ann now campaigns for dangerous dogs to be muzzled in public.