WASHINGTON -- A Granger woman suffered a broken arm while her 4-year-old daughter took bites to her arm and face Wednesday after a loose dog attacked them, Granger police confirmed Friday.
Diana Ortiz, 28, was also holding her 8-month-old son when the attack occurred near the intersection of Sixth and Mentzer avenues around 2 p.m. The infant escaped injury, Ortiz said.
“It was a real miracle,” Ortiz said in Spanish. “I had him in my right arm but I fell on my left.”
Ortiz and her children had just left the home of one of the dog owner’s neighbors at the time of the incident. Ortiz said she had purchased party gifts for an upcoming baptism celebration and was loading the items and her children into the car when a pit bull-mastiff mix attacked her from behind.
“The dog grabbed my arm and knocked me over,” Ortiz said. “Then it bit my daughter’s face and arm and dragged her.”
Granger police Chief Robert Perales said the dog’s owner pulled the dog off them and drove Ortiz and her children to the hospital.
“It was admirable of him, but there are consequences to having a loose dog and it attacking someone,” Perales said.
The owner, who Perales declined to identify, was issued a citation for having an unconfined dangerous dog. The owner told police he had let the dog out while he was cleaning its kennel, Perales said.
The citation carries a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail. The owner’s municipal court date has been set for March 11 and the dog is being held indefinitely at an animal shelter in Granger.
Unlike the city of Yakima, Granger has no ordinance banning pit bulls.
Ortiz and her daughter were treated and released from Toppenish Community Hospital, but Ortiz said her broken arm will require surgery and her daughter’s injuries will take time to fully heal.
“She was bitten all over her face, it’s still really inflamed,” Ortiz said.
The incident echoes a mauling in Wapato in 2004, when a 4-year-old boy nearly had his arms torn from their sockets by three attacking dogs.
The boy spent two weeks at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he underwent surgery and skin grafts. He suffered more than 60 deep bites to his arms, neck, head and legs.
(Yakima Herald-Republic - Feb 22, 2013)
