And hours later, the dog and its owner had still not been found after the attack that happened in the city's northeast end at about 7 p.m.
Haley Khidri, 4, was outside playing with her friends when a light brown pit bull suddenly came up and attacked her, said her mother Florence Gamayo.
"It just came out of nowhere," she said.
"All the kids were screaming and ... I saw Haley being attacked.
"My daughter was bleeding everywhere."
Neighbours Krystyna Stoyanov and her daughter Daniella Macfarlane witnessed the attack first hand and darted out to help the child.
"I saw everything from my window," Stoyanov said.
"I saw a girl was lying on the ground and the dog was I thought licking her, but I looked again and said, 'no, he is biting her.'
"She was crying so I came here, we took her to her mother."
But the dog didn't want to leave her alone.
Gamayo grabbed Haley and sat her on top of her car to get her high away from the aggressive canine, but it continued jumping up at her little girl.
While she and her daughter sought refuge at a neighbour's house, nearby residents, some armed with sticks and brooms, tried to catch the dog.
Macfarlane managed to get hold of the pit bull for a moment but it escaped, at which point its chain collar and blue hankerchief came loose.
"They tried to beat him but the dog wouldn't even blink," Macfarlane said.
"The dog went into the house so I tried to get the dog out of the house and the neighbours started hitting it with sticks again.
"It was very scary - when you see a dog biting a girl on the face you try to help.
"What if we weren't there?"
Paramedics assessed the girl, who sustained a cut to her eye, while police scoured the area for the dog and its owner.
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| Update: The attacking pit bull has been captured |
"That's up to the circumstances," he said, adding it's not yet known if the dog was at large or broke out of its yard.
"If found to be negligence on the part of the owner, animal control would lay the appropriate charges."
While Stoyanov and her neighbours want to see the animal put down, Gamayo said she just wants the owner found for now.
"I just want to know who the owner is," she said, adding she also hopes the dog doesn't have rabies.
"I don't know, I am full of mixed emotions."
(Toronto Sun, April 25, 2011)
Read More:
- Neighbours save four-year-old from pitbull
- Girl recovering from dog attack
- Dog's owner charged after girl bitten
- Bylaw officers capture dog who attacked girl
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| Why do officers think the dog won't attack them?! |
