TENNESSEE -- A Memphis girl was viciously attacked by a dog Monday evening while she was trick-or-treating with her parents.
Tuesday, Chloe Mintz, 9, described a real-life Halloween nightmare.
"We rushed to the hospital," she said. "I was, like, scared to death."
While trick-treating through her neighborhood, Chloe was mauled by a large German Shepard that escaped from its house and went on the attack.
"I was, like, frozen," she said. "The dog rushed out, knocked me and the woman down, and, like, he was biting me on my arm and on my leg."
"It was just like snap, like I said, within seconds the whole thing happened," said Chloe's mother, Nichole.
Chloe and her mother were trick-or-treating with a friend of the family, an off-duty Memphis police officer. He jumped in, pulled the dog off of the girl, and was himself bit before he shot the dog.
"Things could have been a lot worse if they were not handled the way they were handled," Nicole said.
After the attack, Chloe's arm required four hours of emergency surgery. Her father, Jay, was thankful for the swift actions of the off-duty officer.
"From talking to every doctor that looked at it said that if he had not interrupted that dog and taken it into his hands to take that dog off my child, things would have been a lot worse," Jay Mintz said.
The dog was still alive when Animal Control officers captured it, but it was later put down. It's owner has not yet been cited.
(WMCTV - Nov 1, 2011)