Woman Killed in Attack by 7 Dachshund-Mix Dogs

They weighed no more than 40 pounds each and reached just up to one's knees, but all together, a pack of seven dachshunds proved a deadly force in Oklahoma. Carter County Sheriff Chris Bryant says 52-year-old Tracy Garcia was mauled and killed Thursday night by her neighbor's dogs near her home outside Ardmore, KXII reports. When first responders arrived on the scene, at least one of the dachshunds turned on them, too, even charging toward the rescuers. "Unfortunately … we had to shoot one dog," Bryant says, per KFOR, adding they opened fire on it "to protect our deputies, as well as the medical personnel." After the attack, the owner requested the other six dogs be put down, too. The AP reports it's not clear what led to the attack.

At the animal shelter where the dogs were sent after being euthanized, technician Amanda Dinwiddie said four of the dogs were males, three were females, and they all ranged in age from about a year to 3 years old; the older dog may have been the other dogs' mother, the shelter's co-director tells the Daily Ardmoreite. Six of the dogs were said to be a dachshund-terrier mix, while the older one was thought to be a dachshund-border collie mix. Dinwiddie adds the dogs were infested with fleas and ticks—"you can tell they have been living out in the woods"—but otherwise healthy. "This is just a bad deal all the way around," Bryant says, per KTEN. Whether the dogs' owner faces charges will be determined after the district attorney's office reviews Garcia's autopsy results. (Another woman got a dog to protect her family. It ended up killing her.)