BILLINGS — A Billings woman is speaking out after a violent dog attack in her own yard left her emotional support dog dead.
Alice Rautio says she and her dogs were outside her home when a neighbor's larger dogs converged on them without warning late Saturday afternoon.
"We were right here at our front steps, went down the steps, and they came, just converged on us, attacking and snarling and biting," Rautio said Wednesday.
Watch Alice Rautio recount her experience:
Her Ring doorbell camera captured the sounds of the attack. Rautio says she fought back with everything she had.
"There was no stopping them. Nothing I did. I kicked. I screamed. I yelled. I cried. And nothing stopped these dogs," Rautio said.
With no regard for her own safety, Rautio managed to pull her smallest dog — a 3-pound Yorkshire terrier named Kalia —from the attacking dog's mouth.
"I had Kalia in my arms, and she was split wide open," Rautio said.
Despite emergency veterinary care, Kalia's injuries were too severe to survive.
"They couldn't save her. She was so tore up. She had gaping wounds and paralyzed her back legs and broke her ribs," Rautio said. "She died in the middle of the night from cardiac arrest."
Her second dog, Baby Girl, survived but suffered injuries requiring staples in her back.
Rautio says the loss has been devastating. Her husband had previously died, and Kalia served as her emotional support animal.
"That was my world. She was my emotional support dog. My husband died, and that dog was everything I had. Everything she meant the world to me," Rautio said.
Rautio says this was not the first time the neighbor's dogs had come onto her property.
"Those dogs had been over here multiple times. And Animal Control has been called multiple times, and they say there's nothing they can do," Rautio said.
MTN did speak with a man from the home where the dogs live, and he said that he feels awful about what happened and that they have been trying to get the dogs re-homed to avoid euthanization.
Billings Police Sgt. Jeff Stovall says in situations like this, the decision about what happens to the animals ultimately rests with the courts.
Billings police and animal control officers responded to the incident.
"There were citations issued for potentially dangerous animal and the reason the potential is on there is because the court has to deem it that," Stovall said. "So whether they deem it that the dog needs to be euthanized, is seen as a danger to the public, to other animals and that type of stuff, whether it's euthanized, whether it's quarantined, you know, given medication, that type of stuff. But ultimately it lies in the hands of the court."
Stovall said Billings Animal Control responded to more than 400 animal bite calls in the past 12 months.
"Out of that, 75 of those ended up being a citation or a warning for, you know, a potentially dangerous animal in that situation," Stovall said.
For Rautio, the outcome is one she says never should have happened.
"I don't know what to do. It's not fair. My dogs were not running loose. They were on a leash, minding their own business, going out to potty before bed. And they get killed because of that?" Rautio said.
