A 3-year-old Louisiana girl may never smile again after being mauled in a vicious dog attack. The foster dog ate the little girl’s face during the attack.
On March 16, Emily Roark was attacked by a foster dog that her family had brought into their home in less than 24 hours before the horrific attack. The girl’s mother said the dog and the girl were “very sweet together,” according to the Daily Mail. The dog, named Tater Tot, even let Emily give it kisses on the snout.
Rebekka Bolline, Emily’s mother, said, “They had a good relationship. The dog let her kiss her face, on the snout, let her pet her and everything.”
“The little bit of time that they were around each other, they were very sweet with each other,” Bolline said. “Emily came downstairs and she was petting the dog from the back of the neck to his back, very, very softly.”
Bolline recalled, “In a matter of seconds, it barked and latched on her face and then started shaking her side to side, while I’m screaming, ‘Get off my baby! Get off my baby!’”
“When the dog bit and latched onto her, she didn’t make a sound,” the mother explained. “Her body went limp and she was being thrown all over the place.”
“At that moment, I just thought that she wasn’t going to make it and that she was going to die,” Bolline said. “I didn’t know how to help her. I couldn’t get the dog off her. I kept screaming. I don’t remember how I got the dog off – I blocked it out.”
The mother reportedly said the dog eventually released Emily from its jaws, but not before the animal had “ingested” some of the toddler’s flesh from her face.
“Her cheek was chewed up very badly,” Bolline added. “The dog ingested some of her face.”
Emily was rushed from her house in Slidell to a local hospital and then transferred to the Children’s International Pediatrics Hospital in New Orleans.
Emily suffered muscle damage that may prevent her from ever smiling again. She also has wounds on her cheeks, lips, and inside her mouth. Emily will require multiple reconstruction surgeries.
Tater Tot was euthanized by animal control after the dog attack.
Bolline said the whole reason that they started fostering Tater Tot was because Emily desperately wanted a puppy.
The mother said Emily now has a “fear of animals.”
Bolline said, “Every once in a while, she’s in a lot of pain she’ll point to herself and say, ‘Mommy I die, mommy I die. Puppy was hungry,’ which is heartbreaking.”
A GoFundMe was launched to raise money to pay for medical treatment for the young girl.
“March 16th my 3-year-old daughter got attacked by a pitbull. We were fostering a dog and that morning as Emily was softly petting the dog it attacked her,” the profile on the crowdfunding website reads. “The doctors say she will not be able to smile or eat on one side of her face and her tear duct may have been damaged as well. We were discharged yesterday but will need multiple reconstruction surgery. Anything helps, God bless.”
Bolline said, “I will never trust a dog ever again. It snapped for no reason.”
In February, a 6-year-old girl was mauled during a dog attack, The brutal assault in Maine forced the little girl to undergo a 12-hour emergency surgery and require more than 1,000 stitches.
A family friend said of the girl, “Her salivary glands aren’t working … and doctors said she won’t be able to smile again. Muscles are too damaged.”
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