HAWAII -- A two-year-old girl in Kaneohe receives 30 stitches on her face after being attacked by a dog. But officials don't immediately take action.
The girl's aunt contacted KHON2's Action Line after the toddler was injured, and after Honolulu Police and the Hawaiian Humane Society were contacted, but allowed the animal to stay put.
Kayla Takiguchi-Aldrich seems like any other two-year-old girl happily jumping on her princess bed.
But take a closer look and you'll see and hear her pain.
"Ow wee," she cried.
Pain that even her mother's kiss can't fix.
"She cannot open her eye," said Candace Aldrich, mother.
The toddler received 30 stitches on her face and one in her mouth, after an apparent dog attack on Sunday.
Kayla's mom said they were home in Kaneohe, when the little girl wanted to go outside. So the toddler, opened the front door.
"I guess one of our roommates, they brought a dog over and when she went downstairs to open the door, the door just attacked her," Aldrich said.
Aldrich said she didn't know her roommate tied up a dog, just outside the front door.
"I thought he was just watching it for the day. I didn't know the dog was going to stay there and stuff like that," she said. "She didn't even cry or anything, all I heard was the dog bark, and that's when I came running downstairs."
After rushing Kayla to the hospital, her mother contacted Honolulu Police, but says nothing was done.
An HPD spokesperson told us the police officer who responded to Sunday's incident, did contact the Hawaiian Humane Society.
The officer was told that the dog could not be removed because it was on private property.
When we spoke with Humane Society officials today, they told us, it was a miscommunication, and that an animal can be removed from private property under certain circumstances. The Humane Society is now investigating the incident.
The toddler and her mom are no longer living at the house where the incident took place. We visited the home in Kaneohe and saw the dog there Tuesday afternoon. The Humane Society said they checked out the scene shortly after, but by then, the dog was gone, and had been returned to the owner.
[The dog is still in the middle of its quarantine period. If the dog was permitted to do a home quarantine, they need to know where this dog's current location is. Saying "the dog was gone" is not acceptable.]
As for Kayla, this incident has left her with permanent scars. But her mom says it will not damage her daughter's spirit.
The Humane Society also says the caretaker of the dog at the time of the incident, could be held responsible for the dog's actions.
[Note: The article does not mention that the dog was a pit bull, but when you watch the video it describes it as a pit bull.]
(KHON - July 24, 2012)
