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| Nine-year-old Shannon Realmuto was mauled by a Rottweiler on Saturday at Stevens State Park in Morris County. Her mother, Sherri Realmuto, was also bit while trying to pry the dog off her daughter. |
The jingling is a graphic reminder of Saturday's dog attack at Stephens State Park in the Hackettstown area that left Realmuto's daughter, Shannon, with injuries to her left leg and right arm. The little girl needed stitches and her arm was broken and required surgery to remove bits of bone that were dislodged from her forearm.
"She's been emotionally a mess," Realmuto said Wednesday of her daughter. "She hears keys dangling and it reminds her of the collar the dog had. She's been having horrible, horrible nightmares. We both have."
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese called Saturday's attack on Shannon by a Rottweiler "an unfortunate perfect storm of an event."
"We feel very badly for the family and the girl. We wish them the best and hope she can recover quickly," Ragonese said. "I'm sure it was a very, very scary and difficult situation for the mom and her daughter."
The large-breed dog that attacked Shannon is being held in quarantine at the Warren County Health Department's facilities, where it will remain until next week while officials evaluate whether to euthanize the animal, Ragonese said.
Ragonese said the owner of the dog will not be charged in the attack because officials believe it was an accident. The dog, he said, is licensed in Mansfield Township and is up to date on its shots.
The DEP spokesman said the owner of the Rottweiler was putting the dog into her car just as the Realmutos were pulling up to an adjacent parking space in the main parking lot of the state park on the border of Hackettstown and Morris County. The dog then bounded out of the car and charged at the little girl, he said.
Sherri Realmuto, of Hackettstown, said it all happened in an instant. She was reaching in her car to get her cell phone and keys when she heard her daughter scream.
"All I see is my daughter full of blood from head to toe, screaming, 'Mommy!' It happened in two seconds," she said.
Realmuto said she doesn't remember a leash, just a collar that she desperately pulled on to get the dog off of her child. The dog latched onto Realmuto's hand as she tried to intervene.
Ragonese said he was told the dog's owner was also trying to pull the dog away from the girl.
To hear Realmuto tell it, the attack took an eternity.
Realmuto said she was further distraught at the sight of three men who stood watching the ordeal unfold without doing anything to help. Ragonese said he was unable to confirm any people at the scene matched that description. He said no park workers, aside from a 70-year-old customer service representative in a nearby building, were present during the attack.
Realmuto, her voice cracking with emotion, remembers begging three bystanders for help. She said she remembers three men standing nearby, watching the attack "like they were watching a movie."
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| This is a portion of Shannon Realmuto's cast where her father signed it. |
"I started dragging her bloody, little body to the car. I weigh 100 pounds. And not anyone could help me," Realmuto said. "I was begging for help ... to get my daughter to safety as the dog was chewing up my hand. I did everything I could do to protect my little girl."
"They were just awesome. I know if they had been (at the park), they'd have done something," she said of the park police.
Park police deferred to the DEP spokesman for comment.
Realmuto said she and her daughter plan to begin counseling about the attack next week. In the meantime, they've done all they could to put the attack behind them.
"Everything that reminded us of that day we threw right out in the garbage," Realmuto said.
