Woman killed by multiple dogs after they escape from neighbor’s yard, police say

CULLMAN COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC/Gray News) - Investigators in Alabama are trying to figure out how and why a woman was killed by her neighbor’s dogs over the weekend.

The woman, identified by police as 57-year-old Ronda Persall, was killed after multiple dogs escaped through their owner’s fence on May 22, WBRC reported.

The owner, who asked to remain unidentified, said he doesn’t know how his dogs got out.

“They can’t dig through it. There are boards all around it. They couldn’t chew through it. It’s a metal fence,” he said. “It’s a mystery. How did they get out?”

The owner said the commotion outside woke him up around 2:30 a.m. that day. When he went to check it out, he saw the dogs attacking Persall, who was his neighbor.

“She was laying over here beside the car, and the dogs had surrounded her and they were biting her,” he said. “I picked her up out of them. They started biting on me. I took her and put her in the thing, and I asked her if she was OK. She said ‘Baby, I’m OK, but I’m hurting.”

The man received scratches on his leg. He tried rushing his neighbor to the hospital, but it was too late. Persall died a short time later, according to Cullman County Coroner Jeremy Kilpatrick.

“I don’t know, man. It traumatized the smoke out of me,” the owner of the dogs said.

The dogs’ owner said he ended up shooting and killing at least 12 dogs, which he describes as yard dogs. Cullman County’s Animal Control Director, who was at the scene Monday, said two lab mixed dogs were pulled off Persall. Some of the dogs were taken in to be tested.

Meanwhile, the man, who was good friends with Persall, is devastated.

“She had a few oddities. She was eccentric, I guess you’d call her, but she was good as gold,” he said. “She may cut her grass with a pair of scissors, but she was a sweetheart. She wasn’t no mean lady at all. She didn’t deserve it.”

Officials don’t know exactly what led up to the attack. Cullman County’s Animal Control continues to investigate.

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