Dog bites 2-year-old girl nearly blinding her after she tried petting the animal at agriculture show
Two-year-old Isla Williams was on a family day out where she was almost left blinded for life when a dog she tried petting attacked her and tried to bite her face off. Several onlookers witnessed the incident and shouted in horror as blood shot from the deep gashes and wounds on the toddler's face.
The attack lasted just seconds but almost claimed the girl's sight in her right eye as the bite ended just millimeters away. The dog was a Japanese Akita and Isla had been standing near the animal as she and her family prepared to leave the Winterton Agricultural Show near Scunthorpe on July 7. She had bent forward to stroke the dog, but it lunged at her before her mother, Megan Lester, got a chance to obstruct.
"I figured the dog would be friendly with it being a show full of kids and surrounded by a lot of people, so I said Isla could stroke it," Daily Mail reported Megan saying. She lives in Powells Crescent, Scunthorpe. "She was only a few yards away from me. Isla is very good with dogs — we have a large Labrador, so she knows what to do and what not do. But as Isla stroked the dog on the side of its head it opened its jaws and bit her. It was obviously extremely terrifying. The dog bit Isla and she was instantly bleeding," she said, adding: "I panicked and tried to get her medical attention as soon as possible."
The badly traumatized Isla was taken to the show's emergency tent before they headed to Scunthorpe General Hospital. She was soon referred to a doctor who, after assessing the wounds, decided against stitches as they did not want them to become infected. Five hours of treatment and bandaging later, Isla was finally allowed to leave. Her mother said they were lucky the injuries hadn't been any worse.
"I can't believe how lucky she was to get off with just bandaging on her head," said Lester. "She is a tough cookie and already thinks it's better. She's amazing, she just takes it on the chin and carries on, but I was mortified. When the Akita opened its mouth, it was as big as Isla's head. If it properly latched on to her, I don't even want to think about what could have happened," she added.
In all that shock and desperation to get Isla the medical care needed, the family hadn't had the time to speak the dog's owners. "At first, they gave no apology to us. They looked over and then just looked away and carried on doing their thing. Eventually, a woman came over and asked if she was all right, then someone who was with them said to my sister that Isla just appeared out of nowhere. When I was in the first aid tent, I remember I saw them walking around still, but I was panicking and was concentrating on Isla. Their apology just said 'due to an unfortunate event I'm sorry your child got hurt'."
Megan, and Isla's father, Danny Williams, also said that they were pretty livid by the lack of empathy shown by the dog's owners. However, according to Danny, "Isla is doing good, she's handled it really well. She is definitely lucky to only get away with minor injuries and I think it would be good to use this to raise awareness on how dangerous some dogs can be, especially to children. If you have aggressive dogs, it might not be the best idea to take them to a place where hundreds of children will be."
Nigel Ogg, chairman of the show organizers of the Winterton Agricultural Society, said "The whole of the show committee was deeply saddened to hear about the incident on Saturday involving Isla. We have never had any problems in the past with any dogs at our shows. We always have paramedics on the showground, and in fact, were only meters away from the incident and we treated Isla immediately. A full investigation into this will be looked into by ourselves so that nothing like this ever happens again. We wish Isla a speedy recovery."