Amber King discharged after multiple surgeries following Tenderloin dog attack
ABC7 reported a one-week hospitalization and multiple surgeries after the Sept. 8 attack; SFGATE reported Sept. 23 that Amber King had been discharged, while police said no arrests had been made.
Incident summary
San Francisco police said officers responded at about 9:20 a.m. on Sept. 8 to Larkin Street between Eddy and Turk streets and found a woman with major injuries from a dog attack. Police described the dog as a light-brown pit bull terrier. Medics transported the woman with life-threatening injuries. ABC7 later identified the survivor as Amber King and reported that she spent a week at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital undergoing multiple surgeries; in the Sept. 22 interview she said her left hand remained severely damaged and she was beginning to regain some movement in the fingers of her right hand. SFGATE reported Sept. 23 that King had been discharged from the hospital and that San Francisco police said no arrests had been made. King said she had agreed to help by watching the dog, tied it to a post, and that it got loose and attacked her; she also described continuing nightmares and emotional trauma. BiteDB records King’s firsthand account separately from police-reported breed, ownership status and legal responsibility, which remain attributed rather than inferred.
SFPD continues to investigate the incident. ABC7 reported Sept. 22 that no one had been held accountable and that it remained unclear whether investigators had identified the dog’s owner; SFGATE reported Sept. 23 that police said no arrests had been made. Separately, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood proposed a city resolution addressing vaccination/registration records, attack reporting and the dangerous-dog hearing backlog at shelters and supportive-housing sites. The policy proposal is not a finding of fault in this incident, and BiteDB does not infer criminal or civil liability.
Video, reporting and source material
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Primary record used by BiteDB
CBS Bay Area reported, citing SFPD, that officers responded at about 9:20 a.m. Sept. 8 to Larkin Street in the Tenderloin, found a woman with major dog-attack injuries and a light-brown pit bull terrier next to her, and that medics transported the woman with life-threatening injuries.
Open original source ↗Additional sources
- NBC Bay Area — Dog attack leaves woman hospitalized with life-threatening injuries in SF — Independent local corroboration · 2026-09-08
- ABC7 San Francisco — SF looks to strengthen dog safety protocols following brutal Tenderloin pit bull attack — Follow-up local reporting / victim condition, handler account, owner-search status and policy response · 2026-09-17
- San Francisco Standard — After vicious dog attack, supervisor calls for stricter regulations — Independent local follow-up / victim status, investigation and proposed city policy response · 2026-09-16
- ABC7 San Francisco — SF dog attack survivor thought she was “going to die” in maulingFollow-up interview with survivor / recovery status, firsthand account and continuing owner-investigation status · 2026-09-22
- SFGATE — Woman who survived near-fatal San Francisco dog attack speaks outIndependent local follow-up / discharge status and police no-arrest update · 2026-09-23
What BiteDB does not infer
Breed is recorded only at the provenance level shown above. Missing injury details, dog history, ownership facts or circumstances remain unknown unless a reliable source establishes them. This record may be updated as police, animal-control, medical, court or follow-up reporting becomes available.