Dog attack sends Riverdale woman to hospital

Four dogs owned by a woman who neighbors say is wreckless, attacked schoolteacher Mary Frances Moss while she walked down Riverdale Avenue on Feb. 16.

The latest incident involving one of Philomena McNamara’s canines occurred when a large white Husky-German Shepard mix bit Ms. Moss on the left thigh and pierced through her skin, she said.

The educator — who has taught at the Bronx High School of Science and John F. Kennedy High School — was not seriously injured. She was treated at St. Joseph Hospital in Yonkers on Monday and said her wound was healing but that she had developed bruises on her leg.

A dog owned by Ms. McNamara bit a man in August. Neighbors on Riverdale and Netherland avenues have been complaining to the 50th Precinct for months about the dogs they say constantly escape Ms. McNamara’s property and terrorize their neighborhood.

Ms. Moss lives on Riverdale Avenue, less than three blocks from where she was attacked. After stopping at the post office, she said she was walking on Riverdale Avenue just south of West 261st Street, when four dogs started aggressively barking at her from behind a metal fence. She said the dogs jumped up onto the gate, which opened.

“All four dogs came at me. It was very, very terrifying. I screamed. I think they must have heard me throughout New York City. I just didn’t know what to do,” Ms. Moss said.

She said her long down coat protected her but one dog was able to chew through her pants.

“I’m standing there screaming, screaming loud, and their mouths are open with their teeth showing. I heard and felt my coat being ripped … waiting for that bite to come,” she said.

She swung her bag at the dogs and screamed for help before she was able to back up Riverdale Avenue and call the police, who arrived shortly afterward.

Cathleen O’Brien, a resident of Netherland Avenue whose backyard touches Ms. McNamara’s property, said the dogs were in her yard the morning of the incident. She said she called the police because she was afraid to leave her house but nobody showed up.

“We are in more danger than ever! These dogs have now attacked and bitten another person! Why is no one doing anything to remove the danger?” Ms. O’Brien, a resident of Netherland Avenue, wrote in an e-mail. Police did not comment by press prime.

The Department of Health is investigating the attack. A spokesperson for the DOH said that all dogs that bite are observed for 10 days to ensure the dog remains healthy and does not become rabid. Some dogs are observed at a shelter, others from home.

Neighbors said police and other officials showed up at the McNamara house a day after the attack and took each dog outside and photographed them. Neighbors said all the dogs remained at the house.

Ms. McNamara would not respond to calls for comment.