WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES: An eight-year-old girl was savagely attacked by a vicious dog outside her grandmother’s house. Kayla Watson ended up covered in blood and needing hospital treatment
A horrific dog attack left a little girl with awful bite wounds to her face. Little Kayla Watson, eight, was suddenly attacked by a dog in the front garden of her grandmother’s home in Abergavenny, south Wales.
Kayla’s mum Jade O’Hara tried to get the animal away from her daughter, but it locked its jaws onto Kayla’s cheek instead. Ms O’Hara watched in horror at the attack before kicking the dog to get it away from Kayla, who was left screaming in fright and covered in blood.
She was then taken to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny. It comes after the best and worst GP surgeries across the UK were named – check your area.
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“It all happened so quickly and as a mum it was a nightmare, I was so scared,” said Ms O’Hara to Wales New Service. “My daughter loves all pets, but is particularly obsessed with dogs, so it wasn’t unusual for her to want to pet a dog, particularly as we have a really sweet baby of a dog at home that adores her.”
She continued: “She was just playing outside, and I had just come outside for a cigarette, so I was watching her, and then I saw this black and white scruffy type dog just come out of nowhere and start barking incessantly at her.
“When she went to shoo it away, it latched itself onto her cheek and wouldn’t let go. I immediately ran over to them and tried to get the dog off her. I eventually had to kick the dog to make it get off.”
Ms O’Hara said she was worried Kayla had suffered an injury to her eye because there was “blood running all down her cheek” that was “going everywhere”. The dog even left a tell-tale tooth mark behind.
Kayla is still in “a lot of discomfort”, her worried mum said, and was treated with a course of antibiotics. She will have to go back to hospital if the swelling does not go down.
Now, Ms O’Hara is thinking of the “what if?” moments, she says, and hopes to track down the owner of the dog to report what happened and prevent a recurrence. “What if it had happened to someone smaller than Kayla, or what if I hadn’t been outside at the time? I dread to think what could have happened. It’s just so scary as a mum.”
She added: “I wanted to find it so we could report it to the police. It’s just horrible always having these what ifs when something like this happens, and I laid awake at night worried about Kayla and what could have happened.
“Kayla loves dogs and is always so aware of asking owners to touch, so having this happen to her is just awful. I keep thinking why was this dog around here, why did it come onto our property, why did it go for my daughter? What if it had been a younger or smaller child?”
Kayla and her mum have been left traumatised by the incident, which occurred on July 26. Gwent Police said it is aware of the incident.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the force said: “We received a report of a dog attack at around 3:20pm on Saturday 26 July. It was reported that a medium sized black dog – potentially a stray or lost – bit an eight-year-old girl in Queens Square, Tredegar between 1:30pm and 1:45pm that day.
“The girl was taken to hospital for treatment. Enquiries are ongoing to identify the owner of the dog and anyone with information is asked to contact us quoting log reference 2500238460.”