|
Girl hospitalized
after dog bite
The 4-year-old girl's grandfather
is also injured by the pit bull
A 4-year-old girl was bitten by a pit bull in her grandparents' Kalihi backyard yesterday, prompting the family to ask that the dog be destroyed.
The girl was playing with her grandmother in the fenced backyard at 910 Winant St. when a family dog bit her on the bottom, Honolulu Police Sgt. Samuel Rodriguez said.
Both the grandmother, who was outside with the girl, and the grandfather, who had been inside the house, pulled the 60-pound dog off the girl before calling police, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the girl had been playing on a swing, but didn't know what she was doing when the dog bit her. The grandfather was bitten or wounded on the left foot, he said.
Police were called at 4:50 p.m., Rodriguez said.
When police arrived at 4:56 p.m., fire personnel were on the scene rendering first aid, a police dispatcher said.
The girl and her grandfather were taken by ambulance to Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center.
A nursing supervisor at Kaiser Moanalua said that the girl was to have surgery last night to incise and drain her wound and would probably be held overnight for observation. She wasn't aware that another family member had received treatment.
Police didn't identify the girl or her family yesterday. Rodriguez said he believed she was visiting her grandparents. He said the girl's father had joined the family at the hospital.
Neighbors on the street weren't sure of the family name, although they said they have lived at the address for some time.
One neighbor said he sometimes heard the family's three or more dogs barking, but had never seen them outside the fence and had never heard of them being a problem.
The family requested that the Hawaiian Humane Society take the dog away from the home and destroy it, Rodriguez said.
A man met police and Humane Society workers at the house after 6 p.m. and carried the tan, short-haired dog to the Humane Society truck, with its head wrapped in a T-shirt. The man wouldn't identify himself.
Police officers at the site described the backyard where the dog bit the girl as well-kept and clean. The dog that made the attack was separated from two other dogs in the backyard until it was taken away. The other dogs, which could be seen from the street, appeared calm and well-behaved.
The biting dog didn't resist being carried to the Humane Society truck.
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