Owner said his dog "had to have a reason" to attack two girls

INDIANA -- Two sisters are still recovering after a violent dog attack on Monday afternoon. Both had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Luckily, both sisters got released later that evening but with quite the story to tell.

Sisters Angel and Emmalee West are taking it easy and nursing their wounds.

“It felt like something was pinching you really, really hard,” said Emmalee.

The two were at a neighbor’s house in the backyard playing Monday night.

Somehow a dog, a mix named Jake, got out of one enclosure and another unlatched fence in a nearby yard and came for the girls.

“It wasn’t just one bite with one kid. It was multiple bites with two kids,” said Mark West, the girls’ father.

The sisters said Angel got bit first in multiple places. Then, the dog went for Emmalee, leaving puncture wounds on her stomach and behind.

“I didn’t know how bad she was bit. I just knew she’d been bit on her stomach and had four teeth marks in it,” said Mark West.

The Muncie Animal Shelter is holding the pet, and Director Phil Peckinpaugh’s considering it vicious, meaning the animal may never leave.

“In this case, because the attack was unprovoked and the damage to the children, I’ve made the declaration that I do not believe the dog should go back to its owner,” he said.

But Joshua Green tells FOX59 his family’s dog should be allowed back home.

“I don’t think he deserves to die. I really don’t,” said Green.

Green said he has no idea how Jake got out of the square enclosure. But in a police report, an officer observed a screw loose on the kennel and room for Jake to escape.

“He had to have a reason to do it, because he’s never in his whole life attacked a child before,” said Green.

The dog’s owner can appeal the decision by the animal shelter to never release the pet. The designation of “vicious” comes because the director said Jake bit away from the property where he was housed.

Peckinpaugh said anyone with an animal prone to biting should remember to make sure enclosures are secure at all times.

The West sisters tell FOX59 they’re still sore but don’t plan on letting the attack ruin their summer.

(Fox 59 - Jun 12, 2014)