Audrey Austin is speaking out after a savage pit bull attack left her needing facial reconstruction surgery while she was 24 weeks pregnant with twins.
The Topeka, Kansas, woman, who is now recovering after at least 14 hours of surgeries, told WIBW that the July 17 mauling nearly killed three people. She broke a finger shielding her stomach as the two dogs lunged at her in the dark outside her apartment complex. The attack left her with gruesome facial injuries, including damage that nearly cost her an eye and her nose.
“I didn’t know where the blood was coming from. I didn’t know it was coming from my face. I thought it was coming from my stomach, so I was blocking my stomach the best that I can,” she recalled to WIBW.
Her partner, CJ Austin, told the station that doctors needed more than half a day of surgery to reconstruct her face. He also credited a friend with saving her life, saying the man bravely tackled the dogs during the attack. One of the pit bulls was shot dead by a responding police officer.
“If it wasn’t for the gentleman — our friend who stepped in — he said the dogs would have killed her,” CJ Austin told WIBW.
Austin directed her anger at the dogs’ owner, neighbor Tina Buck, rather than the animals themselves. In her WIBW interview, she delivered a stark assessment of the consequences she believes Buck nearly caused.
“[Buck] almost cost three lives that night … not just mine but my twins,” she said.
Despite her ordeal, Austin made clear that she does not hold the dogs responsible for what happened. “There are dogs out there that are sweet and innocent. It’s the owners and how you raise them,” she said.
Buck was issued a municipal citation for dangerous dogs and was booked Thursday on charges of interfering with law enforcement and having dogs running at large, according to WCTV. She has since posted bond and is expected back in court in September.
Austin’s partner described the lasting psychological toll the attack has taken. “She has nightmares of that dog attacking her. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, ‘Get him off me. Get him off me.’ That’s traumatizing her,” he told WIBW.
He also noted that she will “be scarred for the rest of her life.”
In the viral moment that drew national attention, a pregnant woman was mauled by two pit bulls outside her own home, saved only by a friend’s intervention and a police officer’s gun. The case has since become part of broader debates about pit bull ownership and public safety, with Austin’s specific ordeal highlighting both the physical and psychological aftermath of such attacks.
Austin told WIBW that her babies remain in good health and she is expected to deliver in November. She has returned to her apartment complex following an extended period of treatment, defiant about reclaiming her home.
“No dog is going to keep me from coming home,” she said.
A GoFundMe established to cover Austin’s medical expenses and support her while she is unable to work had nearly reached its $9,000 target as of Tuesday morning.
Buck is expected back in court in Topeka in September.