Around noon, 18-month-old Anthony Rodriguez and his mom, Priscilla, went to see the three dogs chained along the back fence of their mobile home. The dog, named Oreo, lunged at the baby and came off its chain.
Speaking by phone from the hospital waiting room, Priscilla Rodriguez said, “I had my hands in his mouth basically trying to pry him off of my baby.”
The 26-year-old mother said the dog was, “Basically trying to chew his face off. It was horrible.”
An ambulance took mother and child to the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston where Anthony went into surgery.
“He's gonna be paralyzed in his face,” said Rodriguez. “He's probably gonna have multiple surgeries.”
The dog belongs to a cousin of Rodriguez who has been in jail since the summer.
Rodriguez suffered a puncture wound on her head, but is otherwise OK physically.
“I'm just thankful he's alive,” she said on the phone. “I wish it would've been me. I wish the dog would've eaten my face instead of my baby.”
Montgomery County Animal Control picked up the dog and is evaluating it for rabies. After the results are in, the courts will decide what will happen next.
(KHOU - Jan 22, 2013)
