A woman who was volunteering at an L.A. animal shelter was awarded nearly $7 million by a jury after a 100 lb. German Shepherd ‘latched on’ to her for five minutes.

Kelly Kaneko, 36, was awarded $6.8 million on Tuesday after the jury found the city liable for gross negligence inside the county-operated animal services facility. 

During the 2019 attack, ‘Jaxx’ latched onto her arm, forcing her to drag herself to help after another employee could not hear her screams because they had headphones in. 

The volunteer was asked to move Jaxx and had been told that he was ‘grumpy’ but not that he had previous biting incidents and was known as aggressive.

Since the massive dog would not let go, she had to drag herself to the front where another person finally saw her and her nearly ripped-off arm.

‘When she arrived at the ER, her hand was officially dead,’ her attorney told the Los Angeles Times, adding that she needed grafts and several procedures. 

Kelly Kaneko, 36, was awarded $6.8 million on Tuesday after the jury found the city liable for gross negligence inside the county-operated animal services facility

According to the LA Times who spoke with Kaneko and her attorney, the woman still has severe nerve and bone damage in her right arm. 

During the October 2019 incident, the aggressive animal latched onto the woman’s arm, cutting off blood flow to her hand.  

‘Her hand gets less blood now than it used to. It always feels cold,’ attorney Ivan Puchalt said of her remaining injuries. 

‘And it’s often a different color. She has a very faint pulse and it’s a very serious injury despite the amazing work they did. She hasn’t been made whole,’ Puchalt said. 

Kaneko said she had initially been motivated to help out at the Los Angeles Animal Shelter in Lincoln Heights after hearing the shelters are underserved. 

‘I love animals with all my heart,’ Kaneko said while sobbing during her interview with the Southern California outlet. 

I felt so bad that this was their situation,’ she said of the animals. 

While working at the shelter in 2019, she was asked to move Jaxx from his kennel to a different part of the facility so a family could meet him, her lawsuit states. 

She said she had been warned that the dog was ‘grumpy,’ but given no more info. 

In reality, Jaxx had bitten his previous owner and was in fact surrendered back to the shelter over his aggressive tendencies, Puchalt alleged. 

During the trial, a Los Angeles Animal Shelter employee said his aggressive demeanor was noted on his kennel which the attorney denied.  

‘There definitely wasn’t one on the day of the incident,’ he said. 

Kaneko had not been trained to deal with animals like Jaxx and was working with the 100 lb. German Shepherd alone at the time of the attack. 

When she released him from his leash, he jumped onto her, grabbing her arm.

Kaneko made numerous attempts to break free and call for help to no avail. 

She ultimately was forced to drag herself and the dog some 250 feet to the front of the facility where only one other worker was stationed. 

The worker, however, had been wearing ear plugs – a recommendation from the shelter’s previous owners – to prevent hearing loss, Puchalt said. 

The employee still could not hear Kaneko’s screams, forcing her to drag her and the dog to the very front of the facility where the employee eventually found her. 

Kaneko was taken to USC Medical Center where she underwent multiple surgeries and skin grafts for her life-altering injuries. 

In total, the volunteer spent more than a month in the hospital. 

Doctors initially said she would lose her hand but they were able to save it with major disclaimers about her abilities moving forward. 

There’s lots of things I won’t be able to do for life,’ Kaneko said. 

In their interview with the Los Angeles Times, Puchalt and Kaneko called their win a ‘victory for a lot of volunteers’ who will now be better protected. 

According to Puchalt, Jaxx was euthanized months after the attack. 

The North Central Animal Shelter is still open at this time.