Sherry Schweder worried about the group of mixed-breed dogs she saw wandering near her home that authorities say mauled her and her husband to death along a rural stretch of road in northeast Georgia.
The 65-year-old animal lover was taking an evening stroll when she was attacked by the pack of wild dogs, authorities believe. Her husband, Lothar Schweder, a retired professor, had gone out in search of her.
Experts say the attack is extremely rare — so rare "you are more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning than by a dog," said Adam Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States.
The feral dogs didn't belong to anyone, but a man who owns a house at the end of the road had been feeding them, said Oglethorpe County sheriff's Capt. Shalon Huff. The man told authorities the dogs never behaved aggressively toward him, and he did not believe the dogs had killed the couple.
"Sometimes the pack mentality can play a role. One dog gets aroused and that revs up his buddies," Goldfarb said.
The dogs were aggressive toward authorities who rounded them up using traps and tranquilizers, Huff said. At one point, a group of them cornered two people against a vehicle. There were no signs the dogs were rabid, Huff said.
Authorities believe Sherry Schweder went for an evening walk near her home on Friday, perhaps looking for one of her own dogs that had been missing for about a month.
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