Police were called Monday about 8 p.m. to 900 8th St. Southwest, an apartment complex.
Scott Bradley Kimmel, 38, and Lea Nicole Kimmel, 22, were charged with child endangerment causing serious injury.
Altoona police said Lea Kimmel called them saying the girl had fallen onto a wire dog kennel and cut her cheek. When officers arrived, they found the child's face bleeding severely and she was taken to Mercy Medical Center.
The girl has now been released from the hospital.
"Patrol received information from the emergency room that this looked an awful lot like a dog bite," said Detective Jason Ferguson of the Altoona Police Department.
Medics determined the injury was from a dog bite, but the couple denied even having a dog. After police confronted the couple about the injuries, they found a pit bull mix in the apartment. The dog's name is Angel.
"A dog bite there would be two sets of teeth marks, the upper and the lower. It's just one scratch," said Chelse Angell, the Kimmel's neighbor.
She has known the Kimmels for a year and said Angel is anything but aggressive.
"Every time I've been up there, she just runs to me, sits on the couch with me and licks me. Then she'll lay her head in my lap," said Angell.
But because the Kimmels couldn't provide police with any shot records for the dog, animal control had to put the dog in quarantine at the Animal Rescue League.
"Mr. Kimmel then released rights of the dog to the animal control so after the 10-day period then the dog will be euthanized," said Ferguson. "They were telling us, 'Yes, we've noticed over the last couple of weeks that the dog has started to become more aggressive around other kids."
Scott and Lea Kimmel are being held in the Polk County Jail each pending bail of $10,000.
"We went with a little bit more severe charge because they purposely hit the dog from us. They lied and tried to mislead us on what the investigation was," said Ferguson.
The case remains under investigation.
(KCCI Des Moines - Dec 10, 2014)
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