A mother-of-five died after she was bitten by one of her pet dogs during a “brief fight” between the two animals, an inquest has heard.
Michelle Hempstead, of Southend, Essex, had a Pomeranian dog called Pom and a mastiff rottweiler cross named Trigg.
The hearing in Chelmsford was told the 34-year-old had been throwing chicken nuggets to the two dogs in her flat on 29 July last year when the larger dog caught her upper arm – and an artery – when snapping at the smaller pet.
Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes said Pom “had a go at Trigg”, who “did go to bite him or snap at him, and this is a big dog with big jaws”.
He said he accepted the two dogs were “quite well behaved” and Trigg was “an otherwise gentle giant”.
Ms Hempstead was taken to hospital after the incident but died at the Royal London Hospital the next day following traumatic blood loss which led to multiple organ failure.
Her then partner, Samuel West, told Monday’s hearing Ms Hempstead had bought McDonald’s food including a box of chicken nuggets.
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“She liked to throw them up in the air and the little one, Pom, was going for the big one, not aggressively but he used to growl and snap when he wanted to get the nugget first,” he said.
He said as Pom went to get a nugget “Trigg’s done this thing where he chomps his mouth”.
“It looked like to me it wasn’t a grab,” Mr West continued. “He just went to do a chomping thing and caught her under the arm.”
He said Trigg slept on Ms Hempstead’s bed and “didn’t have a bad bone in his body”, describing the incident as an “absolute freak accident”.
Mr West added that Ms Hempstead had previously fed Trigg food from her mouth.
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Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes, recording a conclusion of accidental death, said: “Michelle Hempstead died of the consequences of traumatic blood loss following a single bite from her large dog in her home which severed an artery.
“The bite was not malicious and occurred when she was caught during a brief fight between her two dogs over food.”
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He continued: “The double tragedy about this is that she [Ms Hempstead] and the rest of her family suffered a terrible bereavement only a few weeks beforehand, of the death of her daughter.
“She was still reeling from that.”
Police previously said two dogs were seized from the address and that both animals had been “disclaimed for destruction”.
