A DISTRAUGHT mother says the dog attack which has left her two-year-old daughter scared of animals could have been prevented.
Nicole Chuck, 25, was with her daughter Harper at McDonald’s on Wombwell Lane, Stairfoot, when the little girl was attacked by a Jack Russell cross-breed owned by another customer.
The attack, which happened on the patio area outside the restaurant at around midday last Thursday, left Harper with facial injuries and she had to be taken to hospital.
Nicole, of Hollowgate Avenue, West Melton, said: “I saw it all. She stroked it once and then stroked it again and then it just bit her.
“I have never ever seen her like that in my life, she was screaming.
“There was just so much blood, it was a right mess, it just churned your stomach. I have an 11-year-old stepson and a six-year-old son and they were both traumatised.
“I was that shocked I couldn’t get my words out on the phone to the ambulance service.
“When the paramedics got to us they said it was a good job it wasn’t a bigger dog or it would have pulled her face off.”
Harper, who Nicole said has been brought up around animals, has been left traumatised by the incident.
Nicole said: “She’s definitely scared of animals now.
“She’s usually so gentle around dogs, and she’s been brought up around animals. There’s a woman up the street with a dog and my mum and dad have a Golden Retriever and a Bedlington terrier.
“Kids can be rough when they don’t know better, but she’s never rough and she’d never hurt anything.
“When we’re out at the moment, I don’t really trust any dogs that come up to her.”
Harper was taken to Barnsley Hospital immediately after the attack, but she was sent to see specialists at Sheffield Children’s Hospital the following day to see if she would need reconstructive surgery.
The doctors advised Harper’s parents to see how her injuries healed without invasive surgery, and she is currently on antibiotics and using creams to help the cuts heal.
Nicole said: “The owners said the dog’s never done anything like that before, but I think they could have stopped it.
“The doctors told us she would have scars for life, and she’s got to live with that now.
“If that had been my dog I would have left my details, and I would’ve offered to take the injured person to the hospital, but they just disappeared.”
