She also cannot look straight ahead with her left eye or shed a tear due to scarring on her tear ducts.
After 45 days in the hospital, teams of doctors continue to reconstruct the face her family once knew before her aunt's dog attacked her without warning at the breakfast table.
"I think she has nightmares. Some nights she wakes up crying and very scared," her mother, Madlosangeles Garcia-Barrera, said in a strained voice.
Her daughter is not alone in confronting the harsh realities of life after a serious dog attack. In the past five months, a newborn, another toddler and a 71-year-old retired teacher have been attacked and killed by dogs in the Houston area.
At the same time, Texas Children's Hospital reports a 79 percent increase in dog-bite victims coming to its emergency room in 2011 compared to the previous year, spiking to 267 from 149.
Cases on the rise
Most could be treated and released. But 25 victims required lengthy hospitalizations and major reconstructive surgeries.
By many indicators, dog-bite injuries are growing locally and nationally.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the number of non-fatal bite injuries has jumped to 342,000 in 2010 from 306,000 in 2006. The number of bite cases reported in unincorporated areas of Harris County also has steadily increased in recent years.
As part of this trend, a major debate has intensified on whether some dogs are inherently dangerous.
Since pit bull-type breeds often are linked to a majority of the catastrophic bite cases, laws have sprouted across the country to more strictly regulate them.
But Texas does not allow breed-specific laws.
Cities such as Denver and Miami have banned the ownership of pit bull-types, and San Francisco requires mandatory sterilization of the animals.
Fueling the push to regulate dogs such as pit bulls are the stories of people being seriously injured in attacks.
Jaimee Westfall, a trauma nurse at Texas Children's Hospital for 13 years, said serious dog- bite cases were unusual in years past but now are becoming increasingly common.
"Over and over, I hear the victims' families say that they never thought their dog could do this," Westfall said. "He just snapped."
Thousands of complaints about aggressive dogs also are pouring in to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
"We had 4,130 calls this past year in the unincorporated area, which is 5 percent more than the year before," said sheriff's spokesman Thomas Gilliland.
The dogs linked to the three recent deaths and many catastrophic injuries at Texas Children's were attributed to pit bull-type breeds that can include the American pit bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier as well as sometimes American bulldogs and presa canarios.
Colleen Lynn, who heads a national dog-bite victim group based in Austin, said 71 percent of the 31 dog-bite deaths recorded across the U.S. last year involved pit bull-type dogs.
She describes them as "canine gladiators" known for their strength, tenacity and ability to ignore pain.
Houston's animal control spokesman, Chris Newport, argues that some of these dogs make excellent pets. He noted the city's shelter last year adopted out thousands of them that its animal behaviorist deemed safe. Some identified as aggressive were euthanized.
Adoptions barred
Newport believes most bites can be traced to the way owners treat their dogs, such as keeping them outdoors or on chains so they are never socialized or training them to become killers for illegal dog fights.
Nonetheless, shelters run by Harris County, the Humane Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals bar adoptions of pit bull-type dogs.
"With our agency having a public health mission, we couldn't do it in good conscience," said Dr. Dawn Blackmar, Harris County's director of veterinary health.
Like most dog owners, Albert Rosas "never in a million years" dreamed his 5-year-old American bulldog would take a huge chunk from his daughter's leg just days before her eighth birthday.
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| Alyssa Rosas |
But after Alyssa fell on some steps in the backyard and started to cry last month, the dog pounced and would not let go. Her mother and grandmother had to wrestle her away.
Now he wants others to be aware of what can happen and see his daughter recover: "She still has an open wound like a monster tried to eat her," Rosas said. "But she was able to take her first step with a walker this week."
Mike Barrett of Nassau Bay wishes a law could have protected his 9-year-old son, Jack, from an American Bulldog down the street that had shown signs of previously been aggressive.
Jack was invited to play at the home of a neighbor who owned the dog.
The Bulldog and the neighbor's pet Boxer attacked nine-year-old Jack, leaving him with 42 gaping wounds. Barrett credits his son's walkie talkie which relayed his screams of terror and brought help as the only thing that saved his life.
"It's an epidemic problem in our area. We need to do something," Barrett said.
(Houston Chronicle - Feb 3, 2012)
