Monday, August 1, 2011

Woman Mauled by Pit Bull while Saving Toddler

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- A mother, walking with her five-year-old daughter, took the brunt of a gruesome pit bull attack in North Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon. The family was removing items from their house, which has to be rebuilt due to the May tornado.

According to Lacey Deyo, she and her daughter were walking back from using a neighbor’s bathroom when their next door neighbor’s pit bull came charging at them. Lacey told FOX 9 that she successfully was able to keep the pit bull from reaching her daughter – but received severe wounds to her legs.

“Dog was growling like the most fierce sounding dog you could think of,” Lacey Deyo told FOX 9.

At least one of Deyo’s wounds was largest enough to fit a fist inside of it, according to Deyo and Jerry Hollis, her fiancée.

“It was bad and there was blood pouring out of her. Down her legs, it was complete blood. The hole was pretty big. I could almost stick my hand inside the hole,” Hollis said.

Deyo is now on crutches, and taking antibiotics and painkillers. Her daughter is shaken up.

“She’s a little shaken up. She went through a tornado. Now, watching her mom get mauled by a pit bull. She’s not a happy kid right now,” Hollis told FOX 9 when describing his daughter.

The incident is under investigation by the Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, according to Dan Niziolek, the department’s director. Niziolek told FOX 9 that a determination of what will happen to the dog will likely conclude before Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the dog remains in custody and in quarantine to make sure it doesn’t have rabies. Both the dog’s owner and custodian could face penalties, according to Niziolek.