KEY POINTS:
As Linnie Afeaki limped cautiously along the dog shelter corridor, she flinched, breaking into sobs as she was confronted by the barking pitbull-cross that attacked her.
The 50-year-old Otara woman was one of two people bitten by the dog outside the Middlemore Hospital children's department on Monday night.
Visiting the Manukau-Papakura animal shelter to identify the dog before it was put down, Mrs Afeaki relived her traumatic experience on seeing the animal, even though it was behind bars.
She is among many people demanding a rethink of the dog control laws since the death of Murupara woman Virginia Ohlson on April 22.
Mrs Afeaki, a kitchen hand at a Viaduct Harbour restaurant, said she was staying at Middlemore Hospital with her sick 18-month-old granddaughter when she went out to have a cigarette.
On her way back, she was bitten by the dog, which had attacked another woman 20 minutes earlier at the entrance to the children's hospital, leaving blood stains on the concrete.
"I just looked up and there was a dog coming towards me," Mrs Afeaki said.
"And another thing I saw was the fella behind the dog, chasing the dog. All he said was, 'Watch out', and that's how I knew that I was going to get bitten."
The dog latched on just below her right hip, inflicting a wound that needed hospital treatment.
"I just stood there shaking. I was crying," she said.
A nearby nurse and a couple passing by came to her aid and took her for treatment.
"I was scared because I remembered all the people that this has happened to before," Mrs Afeaki said.
"When I was in hospital, I was thinking about how lucky I was.
"It really hurts. All I've been feeling is this really sharp pain."
Mrs Afeaki said that although she was in pain, the attack could have had worse consequences.
Her injuries could have been more serious and more people could have been attacked while the dog was loose.
The animal had broken free from its home, 4km from the hospital.
"It's so sad because it happened where the hospital is," she said.
"What if children had come out? Some parents bring them outside for fresh air - people going and doing what they do every day, they don't expect this to happen.
"I like dogs but I just don't understand how other people's dogs bite other people. It's so scary."
DSS Animal Management, the company that contracts dog and other animal control services to the Manukau City Council, expects to put the dog down on Friday.
It was handed over to the company's custody voluntarily.
An investigation into whether the dog's owner will face prosecution is under way.
Unlike many dogs involved in attacks, this one was registered.
