A six-year-old lady is “lucky to be alive” after being trampled by a dog throughout a scary attack – which just stopped when her mum’s screams frightened the animal away. Little Angel-Mae Dawson has actually been left not able to walk effectively after she was viciously savaged by a German Shephard outside her home in Meir, Stoke-on-Trent.
The child had actually been having fun with her sibling Jamie, 8, and her cousins in the street when the two-year-old animal, called Shadow, attacked at 7pm on Saturday (June 10). The dog, which came from a neighbour, got away from its garden and sunk its teeth into the schoolgirl’s back and legs prior to “shaking her around”.
Terrified mum Amy Dawson viewed as the scary unfolded in front of her and ran towards the out-of-control hound yelling at it to let her go. Luckily, the 27-year-old’s screams alarmed the animal off while Angel-Mae was left covered in blood from open leak injuries to her back and legs.
Dad Jack Dawson, 28, said if it wasn’t for his better half’s quick-thinking then he thought his child would not still live now. He said: “We were in the front garden watching the kids play when the neighbour’s dog escaped.
“As soon as the dog got out it just went for my daughter as she was going towards the house to get her bag. It tried to incapacitate her and stuck his teeth into both her legs and shook her around.
“He then went for her spine but she wriggled so it wasn’t able to clamp down on her spine, the teeth went in just to the right of her spine. It was just lucky that my wife saw the dog coming out. She somehow just knew it was going for Angel. She legged it towards my daughter.
“She gave this dead powerful scream, she was shouting ‘Oi’. It even stumped me. That scared the dog off. It definitely saved my daughter’s life.
“It was just pure mother’s desperation. She just wanted to protect her daughter no matter what and she put her own safety aside to save her. It was only few seconds but in those few seconds the dog had managed to do a lot of damage to my daughter.”
Angel was hurried to the Royal Stoke University Hospital where medics discovered she had 7 leak injuries to her body and numerous swellings. Jack included: “My wife immediately saw bleeding and we went down to the hospital. We were all anxious and my wife was holding her tight.
“Angel was screaming. We thought she only had one wound because we hadn’t had a proper look. We both thought she was going to die because of how badly she was bleeding – her fatty tissue was pulled out.
“My daughter definitely wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my wife. She had no regards for her own safety. It punctured both of her legs, one lower leg and the other upper thigh.
“Then up the back. She has scratches on her arms where he’s tried to shake her around a bit. My daughter was lucky that we were outside watching them.”
Angel-Mae has actually been left having a hard time to walk since of her injuries and experiencing anxiety attack given that her scary experience. Jack included: “She’s had lots of cuddles from us both. She can’t really walk properly at the minute.
“She’s managed to escape from having anything broken, but she hobbles about because of how bit the wounds are. She doesn’t like German Shepherds and is quite wary of dogs she doesn’t know.
“She doesn’t want to play outside anymore and has had repeated panic attacks since Saturday. Because of the nature of the attack all the wounds had to be left open.
“Dogs have got a lot of bacteria in their saliva, because of the punctures and the depth of them, if they had tired to close it the needle would’ve caught the bacteria and caused sepsis. Dog bites are quite toxic.
“Since Saturday she’s been to see the plastic surgeon a few times. She’s on really strong antibiotics. She’s got an anti-microbial wash. She’s not allowed to go back to school yet, she’s got a week off.”
Shadow’s owner was said to be “distraught” over the attack and offered her dog over to the cops. The animal now deals with being put down.
Jack, who is a full-time carer for his better half, said: “To be honest, I’ve never known it to be an angry dog. I’ve known it since it was a puppy so the fact that it’s done what its done is confusing.
“The owner has volunteered the dog for termination. It’s with the police now. The dog specialist came out and he said the unfortunate thing is when dogs do something like this they do it again.
“We just want to speak out to warn parents not to let their kids play outside when you’re not there especially if you live near dogs. I’m an animal lover but you just never know. Even dogs that seem friendly can just snap.
“This dog did so much damage in a short period of time and I don’t want other parents going through the same as us.”
