Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Girl who lost an arm aged 8 after being mauled by two pit bulls in sustained attack awarded $72 MILLION by jury

GEORGIA -- A girl who lost an arm and was severely disfigured after being attacked by two pit bulls when she was eight, has been awarded $72 million by a jury.

Erin Ingram was mauled by the two dogs in 2010 in Lithonia, DeKalb County, Georgia, after she went outside to play basketball.


 

The attack was so brutal that surgeons were forced to remove part of her arm, while the other arm is disfigured and her ankles are severely scarred.  

Local children said the same dogs had bit them before, but on March 9, 2010, they were loose and attacked Erin.

'They knocked me down,' she said, reports CBS46.


'They started biting me around the arms and ankles. I was screaming for help.'

Erin can be heard screaming out in pain in a 911 call.

Neighbors tried in vain to get the dogs off the girl until police came and shot one of the dogs.

Owner Twyann Vaughn, said the dogs broke out of the kennel when she wasn’t home.

She was jailed for 16 months after being found guilty on six misdemeanor counts, including reckless conduct and owning a vicious dog.

 

She apologized to the family in 2010.

I'm just very, very sorry that it all happened,' Vaughn said.

'I'm just very, very sorry that it all happened and I just want to express that to the family. I hope Erin's doing well. I really do.'

Her attorneys said the jury's award is one of the largest in a dog attack case, reports WSBTV.

  

With new prosthetics needed as Erin grows and more operations, her medical bills are expected to easily exceed $1 million.

About 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs each year and more than half of the victims are children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. About 800,000 people seek medical attention for the bites. Less than half of those people require treatment and about 16 die, the agency said.

After children ages 5 to 9 years old, the agency said that seniors represent the largest group at risk, followed by letter carriers.

(Daily Mail - Jan 13, 2015)

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1 comment:

  1. These breeds, along with some others should be outlawed.

    ReplyDelete