Ohio: After his pit bull mauled a 3-year-old girl, the owner grabbed the dog and drove off

OHIO -- A toddler was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Wednesday night after a dog attacked her while she played with friends, according to police.

Keith McAfee said he was helping his cousin with yard work nearby when he heard the girl screaming.

"The next thing I see is a black pit bull had a little girl on the ground. (It) was basically shaking her around like she was a rag doll," he said.

He said he approached the dog and attempted to scare it away, but it continued to attack the girl. She only escaped, according to McAfee, when her mother stepped in to grab her and run.

Shortly afterward, the pit bull's owner appeared. McAfee said the man grabbed the dog, put it in his car and drove away.

"He should have stayed," McAfee said. "He should have stayed and seen how that baby was, but to me he was a coward, ‘cause he left."

Update: The dog has been located and the owner arrested

In the video clip, he says he swung a hammer at the dog and it released the little girl, but then went back to attack her, grabbing her by the arm. This is typical of Pit Bull behavior. They don't normally run around attacking everyone within reach; it selects its victim and remains focused on that victim never relenting even when punched, kicked, choked, beaten with baseball bats, tire irons, 2x4s, hammers, etc. Sometimes bullets don't even stop them.

The 3-year-old victim was taken to Children’s Hospital and spent three hours in surgery for injuries to her legs and groin, police said.

Police stayed on the scene, but the driver and the dog had not been found by midnight Wednesday.

The little girl was later identified as Elena Rolfsen. Police say she was being babysat and was in her babysitter's yard playing when the Pit Bull wandered into the yard and attacked her.

VIDEO NEWS CLIP:

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The attack brought back memories of a pit bull attack on 6-year-old Zainabou Drame in 2014.

She was mauled by two pit bulls on the sidewalk in front of her Westwood home until police arrived and shot the animals.

'It’s really indescribable and something no person should ever have to see and something we’ll never forget,' Cincinnati Police Officer Kyle Strunk said.

'I saw the brown dog, which was the bigger of the two dogs and he had the girl’s head in his mouth. He was slinging it around, thrashing his head back and forth with her in his mouth.'

The pit bulls ripped out Zainabou's tongue, tore her windpipe, ripped out most of her teeth and a third of her jaw bone.  Her face was ripped apart and had to be reconstructed.

The courageous little girl went back to school but has a lot of surgeries ahead and an uncertain future.

She eats and drinks through a feeding tube into her stomach. Another tube in her throat helps her breathe. She can’t open her mouth. Her father, Abdoulaye, said she will almost certainly need the feeding tube for the rest of her life.

In 2012, Governor Kasich repealed the law which had declared pit bulls to be inherently dangerous.

(WCPO - April 13, 2017)

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• Pit bull mauls 6-year-old: 'They had to basically put her face back on'
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• Why is it so difficult to charge owners of vicious dogs after attacks?
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• Girl attacked by dogs continues long recovery
• Zainabou Drame, mauled by pit bulls, probably won't see any money from $7.5 million lawsuit judgment
• Ohio: Zainabou Drame, the little girl who could: Life after pit bull attack