Girl, 8, attacked, bitten by dog
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161474703Nikita Braxton
South Bureau (down south again
)
Friday, May 8th 2009
SAD SIGHT: Dog-bite victim, Aalayah Huggins is comforted by her grand-mother Maria yesterday at her Ste Madeleine home. -Photo: DAVE PERSAD
An eight-year-old girl on the way to the village parlour was attacked and bitten by a dog in Ste Madeleine on Tuesday.
It took three people to get the dog off Aalayah Huggins.
The dog had chomped down on her left arm and refused to release her.
It took Aalayah's grandfather, uncle and aunt to save the girl.
They had to beat the dog before it released the child's left arm, her mother Adanna Huggins said yesterday.
The dog is believed dead. The Huggins family said they were receiving death threats because of this.
The mauling happened Tuesday morning while Huggins was on her way to the parlour to buy snacks.
When the dog came, the girl ran and slipped through a hole in a fence to evade the animal.
"But the dog hid behind a car and waited for her. It jumped on her and threw her to the ground," Huggins said.
The girl was taken to the Pleasantville health facility where her wound was bandaged.
She was also treated for bruises to her feet, Huggins said.
Since the incident family members said they have been threatened by the owners of the mixed breed dog. "They told us to be careful now that the dog is dead and if it is war we want, is war we would get," grandmother Maria Huggins said.
Little Aalayah's attack is the second on a child in recent weeks.
Three-year-old Nathalia Jones was rescued from a pitbull attack in Marabella two weeks ago. She was playing in a neighbour's yard when she was bitten.
Yesterday, Nathalia visited the San Fernando General Hospital. Her father Nicholas Jones said she was doing better. "It is only the cut behind her ear that still has to heal properly and is still causing her pain," he said.
Jones is still looking for justice for his child's ailments.
"Even if they don't want to pass the law (
Dangerous Dogs Act), they could still put things in place so that the owner of the animal should be accountable," he said.
Investigations are continuing into both incidents.