Late last Sunday evening, a woman in Robertsfors municipality was attacked by her own dog. Police, ambulance and emergency services were called to the scene and found a woman who had been bitten to death.
– It’s terrible, says neighbor Anna-Karin van der Vliet to SVT Västerbotten.
Andreas Svensson, associate professor of evolutionary ecology at Linnaeus University, says that this type of attack is very rare in Europe.
– But they are increasing and so also in Sweden. We have gone from having an attack every three, four years to having between one and two attacks per year.
He emphasizes that it is generally about larger, uncastrated male dogs – dogs that have a lot of muscle power and that have a strong ability to bite hard.
– It can be dogs that are bred for fighting, dogs that are bred to guard, for example, that are extra dangerous.
There is no suspicion of crime after the death in Robertsfors, but it is considered an accident. The dog allegedly attacked a man inside a home. When the woman tried to ward off the attack, the dog allegedly attacked her instead, according to the police. The dog was euthanized on the spot.