Two American bulldogs jumped a fence and attacked a female postal letter carrier Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
Police said that Emogene Powell was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, but she was stable when she left the scene.
Debbie Fetterly, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, said the letter carrier was attacked at around 5 p.m. on the 1400 block of 191st Street in Miami Gardens.
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Fetterly said that according to witnesses, the woman had scratches on her face. Police said she also had puncture wounds from being bitten.
The letter carrier works out of the North Land Post Office.
Officials initially said that a pit bull mix bit the letter carrier. But Miami-Dade Animal Services said later Tuesday that the animals involved were American bulldogs.
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The owners didn't want to talk about the attack, but one woman in the house, who did not want her face on television, showed paperwork to demonstrate that the dogs are not pit bulls.
“They are not illegal pit bulls, they are American bulldogs, it's here for you to see. American Bulldogs, they have their licenses, they’re up to date," she said.
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Officials decided to leave the dogs at the house, saying that the dogs' papers were in order, the animals were secured, and their owner was on the property.
"The responding animal control officer placed the dogs under quarantine which is standard procedure for any bite incident involving a human," said Kathleen Labrada, the chief of enforcement and operations for Miami-Dade Animal Services, in an email. "The dangerous dog investigator will visit the property in the morning to determine if a court order will be necessary granting authority to seize the dogs. At this time the biter dogs are safely confined in accordance with Florida Department of Health quarantine procedures."
Some people in the area, like Tiffany Jackson, said they want to see the dogs removed.
“I feel like something has to be done,” Jackson said. “That's not right at all, because you have kids that play around here, people exercise here, and a lot of them didn’t know that the dogs were there.”
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