By Alana Mitchelson
A PREGNANT Pakenham woman who no longer has feeling in the right side of her mouth after a Staffordshire bull terrier allegedly bit her in August is still waiting for the council to seize the dog responsible.
The 17-year-old girl was taken to the Dandenong Hospital by ambulance, and her injuries required reconstruction surgery to both lips and more than 40 stitches.
The victim’s sister Kiah Bayley said the girl was now “too scared“ to walk past the house in their street where the fully-grown white and brown Staffy lives.
Ms Bayley said she and her sister had been patting the dog, which they had known since it was a puppy, on the footpath outside their house at about 3pm on Wednesday 3 August.
She said she witnessed the 17-year-old take a step back to show the dog owners her baby bump, when the dog allegedly jumped up and bit her face.
“At first she was in shock and I don’t think she realised she had been bitten. There was a lot of blood,” Ms Bayley said.
“There was blood on the concrete. I didn’t know what to do and I took off my jumper to put pressure on the wound.
“The bite tore open her upper and lower lip. She had flesh from her lips ripped out by the Staffy.”
Since the victim was 16 weeks pregnant at the time of the incident, she was unable to take strong pain relief.
“When the shock wore off, she was in a lot of pain,“ she said.
“She still struggles. The right side of her lips are numb and she’s lost feeling in her mouth.
“She has really bad days sometimes. The scar is decent. It’s really affected her confidence as well.”
Ms Bayley said the council did not make contact with the family until about two weeks after the incident.
“It was really not until we put in a complaint to the Ombudsman in mid-September that council said they would put a team on the case right away,” she said.
“We keep emailing about once a week for updates on how the case is going but the last we heard from the council was early October.
“We’ve seen multiple dog attacks be dealt with immediately and we feel like we’ve been ignored.
“Meanwhile the dog is still being walked in our street and is left tied up outside shops.
“We also know that the dog has killed some of its owner’s other pets.“
In another dog attack Cardinia Shire Council officers were quick to seize a mastiff that attacked a 29-year-old Pakenham man in late October. The man later required surgery.
Cardinia Shire Council development and compliance services manager Debbie Tyson said council was alerted to the incident on the day of the attack and launched an investigation the following day.
“Council has been conducting an investigation, including taking statements from relevant witnesses, and obtaining copies of medical records and photographs of the alleged injuries,“ Ms Tyson said.
“Council prosecutors will review the statements of the witnesses and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute.
“Council officers may seize and impound dogs where a dog attack has resulted in injury to a person or animal, with consideration given to the specific circumstances of each reported incident. In this case, it was not considered necessary to seize the dog.“
Ms Tyson said the council had up to 12 months from the date of an alleged incident to undertake a thorough investigation and commence a prosecution where deemed appropriate.
The Gazette contacted the owners of the dog but they did not wish to provide comment.
