MICHIGAN -- A 6-year-old Oakland Township girl was bitten by a neighbor's pit bull Friday afternoon, according to an Oakland County Sheriff's Office report.
The incident occurred on Dogwood Drive when the girl walked to her next-door neighbor's home to return a ball she had found in her own yard. When she walked to the front door and knocked, two pit bulls "came running to the front door and pushed right through the door to the front porch. One of the dogs then approached (the girl) and bit her on the belly," according to the police report.
When the girl came home to tell her mother she had been bitten, the mother found that there was already a bandage on the cut. When the girl's father called the neighbor's daughter, who owns the pit bulls, she admitted that one of her dogs had bitten the girl, according to the report.
When asked whether the dog was up-to-date on its shots, the dog's owner said it was but refused to provide supporting documentation, according to the report. The woman and her dogs left before deputies arrived.
In the written report, the deputy observed "an approximately 1-inch square bloody wound with three vertical striated marks, probably from the dog's teeth. The wound was bleeding through the bandage."
The mother of the owner of the dog said it "was probably just trying to protect the house" when it bit the girl.
The dogs' owner did not return phone calls from the sheriff's office, according to the report, and will be ticketed for failing to immediately provide her name and address to the victim and for failing to provide the dog's vaccination status, as required by state law.
(Oakland Township Patch - Nov 29, 2011)