Long Island girl, 9, suffers extensive injuries after being mauled by neighbor’s pit bull: ‘He could’ve killed me’
A 9-year-old Long Island girl suffered horrific injuries when she was viciously attacked by a neighbor’s pit bull, leaving her with a partially detached ear and hundreds of staples.
Daniella Schlauch, of Bay Shore, is lucky to be alive following the terrifying Saturday attack.
“He could’ve killed me if no one was out there,” the plucky girl told CBS New York.
Daniella was getting out of the car outside her house when the pooch charged at her, biting her face.
Her dad Pat Schlauch did his best to protect her.
“I didn’t have time to think but I knew I had to save my daughter’s life,” he told News12 Long Island. “The dog just jumped right on her. I was coming out of the house. I just jumped right on his back and held his head down so he couldn’t shake.”
He said the dog’s owner came and called the dog off Daniella.
The fourth-grader was left with a concussion, hundreds of stitches and staples and wounds to her head, hand and foot.
Part of her ear needed to be reattached, according to CBS.
“It pulled me down to the ground and it wouldn’t let go,” Daniella said. “He was just really shaking my head right here, then he let go for a second and started doing it on my head up here.”
Her dad added to News12, “He could’ve killed her. He just missed her eye. Her eyebrow is cut in half. Nine staples in her head. The doctor didn’t even know how many stitches he put in.”
The girl will have to visit a plastic surgeon in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the Schlauch family wants the dog — which is being kept confined for 10 days at the neighbor’s home per an Animal Control order — removed for good. Schlauch said the dog owners don’t have a fence around their property. They also were summonsed for not having a license for the animal.
“I want the dog to be removed from the home because we’re afraid to go outside of our house because the dog is still unrestrained and it can escape and attack someone else,” Daniella’s mother, Teresa Schlauch said.
The girl’s brother, George, said that the pitbull had run around from their neighbor’s back door.
The family filed a dangerous dog application — cases which are heard by a judge within five days. The judge can order the dog to be retrained, removed or euthanized.
“It’s like that the dog who attacked my sister has more rights than she does right now,” George said, referring to the pup’s waiting period.
He added that the neighbor’s pet has “been known to easily just open the latch on the back door and escape, which he has done numerous times before.”
CBS New York could not reach the owner for comment.
