Blue, a 3-year-old pit bull, bit Rylie Kidwiler Saturday afternoon while she was playing at the home of a friend's father at 144 C St., said Steve Beal, manager of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department’s Animal Control division.
Amanda Brick said she dropped her daughter and Rylie off about 3 to play at her ex-husband’s house. He called her no more than an hour later to say his dog bit Rylie, she said.
Brick said Lee Cummings told her they were all hanging out when Blue suddenly bit Rylie, slicing her face from the corner of her mouth down to her chin.
On Wednesday, Rylie said Cummings was petting Blue and saying, "good boy."
“Then he grabbed the side of my face,” the 11-year-old said in a Wednesday interview. “I started crying and, on the floor, there was blood all over.”
Brick said Cummings took Rylie to the hospital, where doctors did emergency surgery.
Cummings declined to talk about what happened.
Rylie was home with her grandma on Wednesday, watching Nickelodeon and petting her cat, Zoe. She said she'd rather be at Irving Middle School where she’s a sixth-grader.
“I want to hang out with my friends, and I’m sitting here doing nothing,” she said. “I’m bummed out.”
Glori Wolfe said her granddaughter is in good spirits but may need more surgery.
Regardless, she’ll have to stay home at least the rest of the week to recover, Wolfe said.
Investigators are looking into what happened, but Beal said the dog is licensed and up to date on his shots so, for now, he'll be quarantined at home for 10 days.
“This is a pretty bad bite,” Beal said.
He said 404 dog bites were recorded in 2014 and 116 so far this year.
Lancaster County Health Department Director Judy Halstead could declare Blue a dangerous dog under state law, forcing Cummings to microchip and neuter him if he hasn’t been already, Beal said.
He also would have to confine the dog to his property and post signs warning passersby.
Or, Halstead could declare the dog vicious under city law, in which case she could order him euthanized, Beal said.
Rylie said she doesn’t want that to happen.
“I love dogs. I’m really not scared of dogs,” she said. “I just don’t want them to die. I want to give them one more chance.”
Wolfe disagrees.
“My poor granddaughter said, ‘Maybe he didn’t mean to do it, Grandma,’” Wolfe said. “The fact is, it may happen again.”
(Lincoln Journal Star - April 22, 2015)
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