FLORIDA -- A Lake Worth woman has been arrested on child-neglect charges for leaving her 3-year-old and teenage daughters home alone with a pit bull that attacked them, police said Monday.
The attacks at the home of Wanda Beltran, 35, occurred Oct. 9, but police said they had to wait for a judge to issue a warrant before they could arrest her Sunday morning.
In the attacks, Beltran's 3-year-old required stitches for multiple cuts to her face and forehead. According to the police report, half of her right eyelid was torn. The skin from her older sister's right elbow was gone, and there were two 2-inch purple-and-blue cuts on it, the report said. Both her children were treated at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Beltran told officers the dog was outside when she left for work and one of the girls must have let the animal in the house. According to the police report, Beltran said her ex-boyfriend had trained the 2-year-old dog to fight, but had hoped to rehabilitate the dog.
The oldest girl, who police only described as 12 to 15 years old, was in the bedroom watching television when she heard her 3-year-old sister scream. When she went to investigate, the younger girl was on one side of the room bleeding and the dog was on the other side ready to attack again, the report said. The older girl grabbed her sister and started to run outside, but before she made it, the dog bit and held on to her elbow. Despite the pain, the report said, she continued running, dragging the dog outside.
A neighbor who saw the commotion and tried to help was bitten in the stomach by the dog.
Beltran, coming home from work, arrived as her pit bull was mauling the neighbor's dog. She grabbed her animal, holding it in the middle of the 400 block of North H Street until police arrived and made her put the dog in her car.
Beltran was charged with felony child neglect causing great bodily harm.
Her bail was set at $5,000.
(Sun Sentinel - December 2, 2003)
