SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A father and daughter are now recovering after a dog they were watching for a friend attacked them.
Nine-year-old Ariana Lorenzo is now living in fear of a bulldog her family was watching for friends while they are out of town. The dog, which weighs nearly 100 pounds, attacked her, resulting in her having to go to the hospital. “He just grabbed my head, was dragging me. All I felt was that I was gonna faint and never wake up,” Lorenzo said.
Ariana was attacked and sustained injuries that required five staples in her head and left marks on her back and face. She stayed in the hospital for two days. “When I came back from the hospital Thursday night, I felt like he was gonna get out of the room and just attack me again,” she said.
The owners of the dog are unable to come get the dog, and they did not leave proper paperwork with the family, so Miami-Dade Animal Services are unable to come pick up the dog. “We’re stuck, basically, in a nightmare — in a horror film,” said Lorenzo’s mother, Vanessa Garcia. “What they need to do is come get this dog. It’s a danger, I have five kids here in total.”
Ariana’s father Jose Lorenzo was also attacked when he fought the 80-pound dog off his daughter. “It came back on the sofa, and it bit me,” he said.
Garcia also worked to help get the dog off her daughter. “I went like this on top, and I’m hitting the dog,” she said.
The family showed 7News bite reports sent to Animal Services. After phone calls to Animal Services, the family hoped the dog would have been picked up. Instead, they are forced to watch him until his owners return. They continue to walk and care for the dog, and they have placed him in a room since the attack.
Jose said his first instinct was to kill the dog, but he didn’t because of his children. “I cannot put them through another trauma,” he said. “It’s very disturbing that my daughter can’t walk around in her own house.”
Animal Services said they are working to find some type of solution for the dog.
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