A Burlington County animal control officer is hospitalized with serious bite wounds after being mauled by two pit bulls.Willingboro animal control officer Michelle Hamilton is in stable condition at Cooper University Hospital with 32 bite wounds to her back, shoulders and legs.The incident happened at about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday at a home on Pickwick Lane in Willingboro.According to officials, the 62-year-old Hamilton responded to the home following a call about two loose dogs.When Hamilton arrived at the home, she saw a male dog go around the side of the home. When no one answered the door, she tried to secure the male dog in a yard where a female dog also lived."There was a hole in the fence that as she went around the side of the house to take a peek, he was already at the hole, charged through the hole and attacked her," Lt. Joseph Dey of the Willingboro Police Department explained.Hamilton covered up her neck and head and tried to fend off the dogs with an extension stick.Hamilton sent a text message to her co-worker Peg Steele describing the attack."She was the word 'ragdoll, he shook me like a ragdoll and then she (other dog) jumped in,'" Steele explained.Lt. Dey said the two dogs were shot and killed by arriving officers after coming at them in an "aggressive manner."Eyewitness News has learned that it is the third time since 2005 that officers have responded to the home for reports about the dogs.The dogs' owner, Kevin Frink, contends it was the first time his dogs have ever bitten someone. Frink believes the officers did not have to gun down his dogs."They became the judge, the jury and prosecutor at that moment," Frink said.It was not immediately known if any charges would be filed.
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