Woman left with horrific facial injuries after being mauled by dog in the street

A woman was left with horrific facial injuries after she was mauled by a dog that she stopped to stroke in the street.

Sam Lodge was told the whippet-like dog was friendly before she went to pet it, she said. The 53-year-old was left in shock when it then 'went for her', Grimsby Live reports.

She needed 16 stitches in her face and will now need 'extensive surgery' to rectify the injuries on her face. Police are trying to find the person responsible for the dog.

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Sam said she was walking on Weelsby Street South, in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on Friday, April 1, when she came across a woman walking a whippet-like dog. She was told the dog was friendly and she bent down to stroke it.

But she ended up being savagely mauled in the face, exposing the cartilage on her nose and leaving her with serious injuries. Sam has already had a number of operations to her face to try and grow the skin back but she has been warned the feeling in her face may never come back due to nerve damage.

Sam said she loves dogs and is sad to have seen something like this happen. She said: "I was out walking and I'd nearly got back to my house when I came across the dog. I love dogs and have always fussed or petted them whenever I've come across them. I asked if the dog was friendly and the owner told me they were so I bent down to pet it.

"It was at that point the dog went for me, nothing like this has ever happened to me before. At first, I just thought the dog had headbutted me and it wasn't until I got home and washed my face that I realised exactly what had happened. It came as quite a shock."

Following an appeal by Humberside Police to help catch those