A beautiful eight-year-old girl has been scarred for life after a dangerous dog savaged her face as she played with a friend.
Kelci Lindley’s nose was left hanging off when she patted her neighbour’s Japanese Akita on the top of the head and it turned on her.
The youngster needed plastic surgery but only got £400 compensation to the fury of mum Shona, 25.
Brave Kelci, who had to be straw-fed, has been left with a scar across her cheek and nose where the vicious dog called Storm bit her.
Owner Amanda Arnott pleaded guilty to owning a dog dangerously out of control to cause injury and the Akita was put down.
Shona, of Grimsby, North East Lincs., said: “This was the second time that dog had bitten a child – yet she didn’t have it caged or muzzled.
“The tip of Kelci’s nose was hanging off but she refused to have the dog put down – when another child had been bitten on the head.
“It has completely torn her face apart – and that is the outcome of homing a dangerous dog.
“She was straw fed for a week after it happened and it just ruined her face. She is still beautiful but as a mum it’s absolutely killed me.”
Shona said that Arnott had never mentioned that her dog had an aggressive streak before letting Kelci play with her daughter at the owner’s house three doors away.
Shona’s partner Lewis Leggett, 26, was just about to collect Kelci for dinner when Arnott’s daughter came rushing to their door screaming ‘the dog’s got her face’.
Mum-of-four Shona then rushed over to find the dog had savaged her beautiful daughter, with lacerations to to the side of face, underneath her eye, her lip, nose and hand.
Arnott was holding Kelci trying to wipe the blood of her face with a towel – but never called an ambulance.
Kelci was rushed to the Hull Royal Infirmary Hospital where she underwent a five-hour surgery to stitch all her wounds back together and put her nose back in place.
Sppecialists have warned her family the youngster will be scarred for life.
Shona said: “She [Arnott] knew the dog had potential to do it and that dog should be muzzled and I can’t see why would you let that run around freely.
“The mother [Arnott] then moved house two weeks later and has never once apologised for it – or said sorry.
“What makes all this worse is that she didn’t even call an ambulance which is so wrong – it was like she was trying to cover it up.”
Shona, who is six months pregnant and mum to Morgan, five, Shayla, three, and Braiden, one, has even got rid of their pet dog Blaze because Kelci is so traumatised by the incident.
Shona says that it is also the second time that a child had been bitten by Arnott’s dog – after a 10-year-old was bitten on the top of his head in the street.
Asked why she allowed Kelci to the house, Shona said: “I always keep my children at arms length and it was a big thing for me to allow Kelci to go around to her friend’s house in the first place.
“The friend had been around to our house the week before – so felt bad saying no and I agreed to it.
“But apparently there had been an incident when a young boy has also been bitten on the head by the same dog while he was playing in the street.”
Unbeknown to Shona, The Japanese Akita breed is notorious for being a large, strong, and dominant dog and is even illegal to own them in some countries.
Speaking about the dangerous breed, Shona said: “Just like any mum, I’d never have let my daughter go round there if I knew there was a vicious dog on the loose.
“If we ever have guests around I always take our dog outside.
Shona said: “I never realised how many dog bites have happened especially with that type of breed but once I Googled it I couldn’t believe what savages they really are.
“Kelci was such an outgoing kid, she loves people and animals, yet she’s been left terrified by this, she thought she was going to die.”
Arnott pleaded guilty to owning a dog dangerously out of control to cause injury at Grimsby Magistrates Court on May 11 .
She was given a two year conditional discharge and ordered to compensate Kelci £400.
Shona added: “It also seems completely unfair for her to pretty much get away with it while we live with the consequences.
“There should be stricter laws about housing dangerous animals – I would do anything for this to have never happened to my girl or any other child.”
Arnott is still allowed to own dogs and Shona claims her former neighbour even owns another Japanese Akita.
