A MUM says she
screamed in horror as she watched her 15-month-old daughter being savaged by a ten-stone Great Dane, leaving the toddler permanently scarred.
Brittany, 23, and her young daughter Olivia were playing on the kitchen floor when the three-foot-tall rescue dog pounced and attacked Olivia “out of nowhere”.
The traumatised tot was left needing reconstructive surgery after her right ear was nearly ripped off, leaving her face permanently scarred.
The hound had tried to put the infant’s whole head in his mouth during the attack in Texas. Vets put it down following the attack.
The dog named Harvey was owned by the girl’s grandmother Michelle Eling, 45, and had only been in the family for two months.
Dog lover Michelle, an accountant, said: “I was standing in the kitchen, Olivia and Brittany were on the floor playing, Brittany was making her giggle.
“I heard Harvey growl. Then I just heard Brittany scream ‘no’, I turned round and saw him lunge at Olivia.
“We couldn’t get him loose. Harvey went to readjust his bite on her head and my son, Alex, managed to pull him away.
If he hadn’t and he had got hold of her head, I would have had to decide who to save, my pregnant daughter or my granddaughter.
“All that was going through my mind was, ‘she is not dying in my kitchen’.
There was so much blood, I thought she was going to bleed out.
“I grabbed her from Brittany and took her to the bathroom to stop the bleeding.”
Full time mum Brittany, has three children with chemical plant worker husband, Taylor, 28, including Mason, three, and Madison, two months.
She was eight months pregnant with Maddison when she was forced to step in to save Olivia.
Olivia was kept in hospital for two days while she underwent a one-hour surgery to reattach the tip of her right ear and a two-hour skin graft on the top of her head.
However, she has been left with permanent scars on her face.
Brittany hopes that Olivia can’t remember what happened that day but said the youngster is now wary and cautious around other dogs and sometimes wakes up in the night grabbing her ear.
Harvey, who is believed to have been abused by his previous owners, was taken into quarantine for ten days by animal control before being put down.
Brittany said: “We were supposed to be going home but my Mason wanted to see his grandmother.
“It started off normal. I usually tell the dogs to go away if they approach us but he was calm.
“For some reason I let him come over and out of nowhere he bit her head, he was trying to get her whole head in his mouth.
“I’ve blocked it out so I only remember bits. I remember my mum and brother trying to pull him away and I put my arm in his mouth.
“All I could think was please keep crying because I knew if she was crying then she was alive.
“There was blood everywhere. I was pregnant but I wasn’t thinking about me. I just wanted to save my daughter.”
Brittany wanted the dog put down, as she realised how close she had come to losing her daughter.
But Michelle said she felt sorry for the pooch and blamed his previous owners for the way they had treated him.
Michelle added: “It was a complete shock because he was a sweet dog, you could just tell he’d been abused.
“He didn’t know how to be a dog, he didn’t know how to run and didn’t like going on the grass.
“He didn’t have a good life, but he was sweet and he wanted attention.
Shame on the people who owned him before, I just hope in the two months he spent with us it showed him a different life.
“You don’t want to see an animal put down but once they have done something like this there’s no going back.
“It’s catch 22. You love an animal but you love your kids more.
“Once they have a taste of blood, it’s too late. I wasn’t going to be responsible for him doing that again.
“He nearly killed my granddaughter. I thank my lucky stars she’s alright.
“If Alex hadn’t been there he would have got my daughter and I would have had to choose who to save.”
Brittany added: “We don’t know if he’s done it before, and the next person might not have survived.”
