MIAMI — A dog is recovering after being attacked by a shark at a Miami-area beach.
Ana Maña was at Darwin Beach in Virginia Key tossing a Frisbee disc to her rescue dog, Boobie, on Monday evening when the attack happened, WTVJ reported.
“And as she was swimming back to me this gigantic shark that now I know is a bull shark, about 6 feet. ... grabbed her,” Maña told the television station. “I thought she was going to die in my arms.
“She was screaming in so much pain.”
The shark bit the dog on her leg, WSVN reported.
Boobie was rushed to a veterinarian’s office on Key Biscayne, WLPG reported.
“The dog was crying, and there was a lot of blood,” Yael Huerta, part of the surgical team at Miami Veterinary Services, told the television station.
“The shark caused a lot of damage. A lot of muscles and tendons were torn,” veterinary surgeon Natalia Andrade told WTVJ.
“They had to rebuild her leg because the shark did get through the joint,” Maña said. “It opened up the knee joint. Her muscles are torn apart, her tendons, her arteries, everything was just chewed by the shark.”
Maña said she needs help paying the bill to save Boobie, WSVN reported. She estimated that the bill could be as high as $15,000. As a waitress who was unable to work for nine months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maña said that meeting those costs are going to be difficult.
“We were nine, 10 months without a job, and I’m barely catching up,” Maña told the television station. “Hard to say it. I’m not used to saying that I need help, but I guess I do. I guess I do need help.”
However, seeing her dog resting comfortably after the surgery is what matters most, Maña said.
“The fact that she’s wagging her tail and she’s kind of like herself, it’s just incredible,” Maña told WTVJ.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to pay for the dog’s medical costs. As of Thursday afternoon, more than $9,200 had been raised.