An inquest has heard about a woman from the U.K. who died after attempting to intervene when a fight broke out between her two dogs.
Michelle Hempstead, 34, was rushed into hospital after being bitten by her dog while in her flat in Southend-on-Sea. The incident occurred back in July of 2024 with the subsequent inquest looking into exactly what led to such a tragic outcome.
Ms Hempstead’s partner, Samuel West, witnessed the incident, he told the inquest that Michelle had simply been “caught in the crossfire” between their two dogs. The BBC reports that Hempstead had apparently thrown a chicken nugget into the air for her little Pomeranian and much larger Rottweiler-Mastiff crossbreed named Trigg.
The much larger dog apparently snapped at the smaller pomeranian which prompted their owner to try and get between them and stop a fight breaking out. Unfortunately for Ms Hempstead, the rottweiler-mastiff then bit her around the upper left arm and armpit which severed a major artery and vein. She began quickly losing blood and went on to suffer multi-organ failure.
According to officers who attended the scene Michelle Hempstead collapsed outside of her flat after the injury on July 29. She was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead a few hours later on July 30.
What became of the dog?
The inquest was told that the bite was “not malicious,” Mr West even claimed that Trigg was “docile” and that the dog “loved [Ms Hempstead] to death, and didn’t have a bad bone in his body.” From what Mr West claims, the dog’s behavior was certainly out of character. “You didn’t have to worry about him with anything, he wasn’t vicious in any way, shape or form,” he told the inquest. He even went on to claim that Ms Hempstead would occasionally feed Trigg from her mouth.
However, the fact that the bite did lead to the death of Hempstead meant that the only option was to destroy the dog. It seems Trigg lost any sense of inhibition after going into a frenzy over the chicken nugget. The dog was seized after the incident and put down shortly after.
Samuel West was arrested at the time but later released, he told the court that neither of the two dogs were illegal or banned breeds.
Michelle Hempstead’s mother described her daughter as “loving, resilient, not afraid to speak her mind, hard working, caring, extremely brave, resourceful, generous.” In a letter to the court, the coroner, Lincoln Brookes, concluded that it was an accidental death, calling it an “unintended consequence of an otherwise innocent act.”
